Banca Comercială Română

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  Banca Comercială Română SA
Country RomaniaRomania Romania
Seat Bucharest
legal form Corporation
BIC RNCBROBUXXX
founding December 1, 1990
Website www.bcr.ro
Business data 2009
Total assets RON 69.402 billion
Employee 8,200
management
Board Dominic Bruynseels ( CEO ), Oana Petrescu, Martin Škopek, Helmuth Hintringer, Wolfgang Schoiswohl
Supervisory board Andreas Treichl , Manfred Wimmer
BCR headquarters in Bucharest on Regina-Elisabeta-Bulevard

The Banca Comerciala Romana SA (abbreviated: BCR, pronounced bä-tschä-ra) is the largest bank in Romania . It was founded by a government decision on December 1, 1990, to offer financial services for the newly emerging private economic sector after the end of communism. In 2005 it was privatized, with the Austrian Erste Bank acquiring the majority of the shares. Since then she has been part of the Erste Group . Today the bank is a universal bank with private and business customers and has branches in all districts of Romania .

founding

Almost a year after the Romanian Revolution in 1989 , the Banca Comercială Română was founded by government resolution. In the transition from the communist planned economy to a privately organized market economy , the BCR was to take over the corresponding banking services for the former state-owned companies and newly founded private companies. A stock corporation was chosen as the legal form. The BCR took over the loan portfolio of the former state-owned enterprises from the National Bank, which until then had not only been a central bank, but had also acted as a commercial bank in the communist economic system. With the founding resolution, the BCR began its activities on December 1, 1990, with the staff from the Romanian National Bank ( Banca Națională a României - BNR). The total assets at the time of establishment amounted to 273 billion old lei (ROL), with the assets of 269 billion lei mainly consisting of bank loans. The contributions in kind amounted to only 26 billion lei.

BCR started in the first year with 5,300 employees and 100 branches. This time was marked by a difficult economic environment in the Romanian industry and agriculture, which was undergoing reconstruction and sometimes also in complete collapse. The majority of customers were former state-owned companies that were currently in the privatization process. Some of them were able to successfully find investors, continue to work under private management and thus also service the outstanding loans, others became insolvent and ceased operations. During this difficult time, the BCR opened up to the private customer business and thus became a universal bank that also offered services such as savings and current account management. This enabled it to significantly improve its liquidity. By taking over small banks and opening our own branches, the number of employees and branches doubled by 1995.

In 1997, Banca Comercială Română became the first Romanian bank to issue a bond on the international capital market without a guarantee from the Romanian government. With Merrill Lynch as an underwriter, it raised $ 75 million from investors in the US and Europe. This enabled BCR to develop into the largest bank in Romania.

The years 1998 and 1999 were marked by the ruble crisis , which also affected Southeast Europe. The international financial markets lost confidence in the economies of Eastern Europe for a short time, which made it impossible to issue bonds at times. However, the BCR was able to survive this turbulent phase. In 1999 the Romanian government decided to start a program to privatize state banks. The Romanian Development Bank was the first major bank to be sold to the French Societée Generale, which then became the largest competitor in the Romanian banking market as BRD - Groupe Société Générale . The two big banks together controlled 66% of the market in 2002.

The BCR continued to expand during this time. In 1998 it opened its business in Moldova with a branch in Chișinău, and in 2000 a branch was opened in Cyprus . In 2001 she acquired the Anglo-Romanian Bank in London and opened an office in New York in 2002 . In 2004, the Anglo-Romanian Bank again acquired the Banque Franco Roumaine in Paris and the Frankfurt Bucharest Bank .

privatization

In 2005 the Romanian government decided to privatize Banca Comercială Română as well. In December of that year, the Austrian Erste Bank was finally accepted to acquire the majority of the shares. The first acquired 61.8825% of the shares at a price of 3.75 billion euros. Accounted for 37% of the shares acquired the first case directly from the Romanian Government, as well as 12,5% of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the the World Bank belonging IFC .

At the time, this purchase represented the largest foreign investment ever made by an Austrian company. At the same time, it made Erste the largest foreign investor in Romania. The relatively high book value multiplier of 5.8 was a sensation. At that time, analysts had calculated a value for the entire bank of less than one billion euros. However, Erste Bank wanted to round off its expansion in south-eastern Europe and BCR was at that time the only major Romanian bank that had not yet been privatized.

At the time of the takeover, BCR had 12,000 employees and 2.8 million customers. As a result, it was integrated into Erste Group and the banking business was technically modernized. By 2007 the number of employees had been reduced to 10,600, by the end of 2008 it had fallen to 9,985.

In 2007 the previous logo was changed and the appearance was adapted to the international appearance of Erste Bank. In 2008 Erste Bank acquired a further 8% of the shares from the Romanian government, which were later issued in an employee participation program. In the same year, BCR was consolidated into the listed Erste Group , which combines eight Eastern European subsidiary banks of Erste in a holding company. As a result, Erste Bank was able to get back part of the BCR purchase price paid in 2005 from the capital market.

Until December 23, 2007, the former Romanian Finance Minister Daniel Dăianu was a member of the Supervisory Board. Since he after Romania's accession to the European Union for the PNL to the European Parliament was elected, he resigned the post to avoid a conflict of interest.

Business areas

Today the bank operates 367 branches in all 41 Romanian counties and looks after 2.5 million private customers and 300,000 corporate customers. In addition to the business and private customer area, the bank now operates several subsidiaries that are active in the areas of leasing, insurance and investment banking:

  • BCR leasing
  • BCR Securities
  • BCR Asigurări
  • BCR Asset Management

Shareholder structure

The BCR itself is not listed . In addition to the Austrian Erste Bank, five regional Romanian investment companies are involved in the bank. The exact shareholder structure is currently as follows:

  1. 62% Erste Group
  2. 8% BCR employees
  3. 6% SIF1-Banat-Crisana
  4. 6% SIF2-Moldova
  5. 6% SIF3 Transylvania
  6. 6% SIF4 Muntenia
  7. 6% SIF5-Oltenia

photos

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the BIC directory at SWIFT
  2. ↑ standard.ro: Dominic Bruynseels: BCR își va menține numărul de salariați la 8,700 până la sfârșitul lui 2009 (video) ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 5, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / standard.money.ro
  3. ↑ referat.ro: Banca comerciala romana
  4. ↑ escoala.ro: Scurt istoric al Bancii Comerciale Romane