The insurance sector has even fewer Romanian brands still standing, as insurers changed name to reflect their parent company’s as a rule.
The two largest banks by assets, BCR and BRD, two brands created at the beginning of the nineties, kept their names following takeover by Austria’s Erste group and France’s Societe Generale. The two adopted the visual identity of their parent groups, a red S (Erste) and a horizontal white line in a red and black square (SocGen).
Some Erste Group shareholders insisted last year to have the BCR name replaced with Erste, following the losses of the local branch that affected the business of the group. They even said the local bank had an image problem and needed to turn over a new leaf by having its name changed. The chief executive of Erste, Andreas Treichl, who masterminded the BCR takeover in 2006 was against it, reiterating trust on the BCR brand.
The BCR brand (Banca Comerciala Romana – Romanian Commercial Bank) was created in 1990, when the new bank took over the commercial operations of Romania’s central bank. BCR, whose market share stands at 20%, was acquired by Erste in 2006.
SocGen got BRD in 1999. The BRD brand (Banca Romana pentru Dezvoltare – Romanian Development Bank) was established in 1990, and was the new name of the communist-era Banca de Investitii (Investment Bank).
Banca Transilvania and CEC Bank are the only Romanian-owned brands among the top ten banks. Banca Transilvania (TLV.RO) has a wide-spread ownership, but is included by the central bank in the category of Romanian-owned lenders. The bank established by several entrepreneurs in Cluj in 1994 is now the third leading lender in Romania, with a market share of 9%.
CEC is the oldest local bank, with a history of 150 years. The bank underwent rebranding in 2008, when it turned from Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni (CEC) into CEC Bank.
The bank is fully state-owned and went through a privatization attempt in 2005.
“CEC Bank is a national symbol and there is a desire for it to remain like that. A privatization might happen but only if extremely necessary. I don’t think the government is interested at the moment to compensate for some revenue it did not get with a potential sale of CEC,” said Radu Gratian Ghetea, CEC Bank chairman.
Bancpost, a brand with an over 20-year history in Romania, became Greek-owned in 2003, when Eurobank bought it. Although the new owner did contemplate a name change at some point, it eventually decided to leave it as it was.
It later turned out how important this decision was, when the crisis in Greece tainted the image of the local Greek-held banks and lots of people withdrew their deposits. Bancpost was less affected by the bank run because few customers associated it with its parent, Eurobank.
Not all Romanian financial brands have been able to survive, though, after takeover by a foreign group. Banca Bucuresti, set up in 1994, became Alpha Bank following takeover by the Greek group by the same name. Alpha Bank is now a top ten lender.
Three medium-sized banks are Romanian brands, and two of them are locally held, Eximbank and Carpatica. Eximbank is state-owned, while Carpatica’s main shareholder is Sibiu businessman Ilie Carabulea.
The other local brand is Banca Romaneasca, whose owner is National Bank of Greece (NBG).
A few local brands did survive in the insurance business, too, some of them now foreign-owned. Astra, Omniasig, Asirom and Carpatica Asig are local brands and also top ten insurers by gross written premiums. The four account for one third of the insurance market.
Astra’s owner is businessman Dan Adamescu, and is now under special administration. Omniasig and Asirom’s owner is Vienna Insurance Group, with more and more rumors about a merger of the two surfacing lately, so one of the brands should cease to exist.
It will not be the first time such a thing happens, though. In 2009, Asiban and BT Asigurari merged to form the local subsidiary of Groupama. Two years ago 16-year old brand Ardaf disappeared, as well, following merger with Generali. The initial plan was to keep Ardaf, but eventually it did not materialize.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)