The loan portfolios of the four Greek-held banks in Romania shrank to around EUR11 billion. Alpha and Bancpost, two two-ten players in the Romanian banking system, reported an around 7% decline for loan balance sheets, to EUR3.2 billion and EUR3.1 billion respectively.
Piraeus Bank on the other hand slightly increased its loan portfolio after taking over ATE Bank. The bank had loans worth almost EUR3.1 billion at the end of September. Greek group NBG, which owns Banca Romaneasca, did not report the volume of loans granted in Romania for the first nine months of 2012, but at the end of March it had a EUR1.9 billion portfolio.
The only data published by NBG for local operations is for deposits. Their value fell by 8% against September 2011, to EUR700 million. Bancpost’s deposits also fell by almost 8%, to EUR1.7 billion.
On the other hand, deposits attracted by Alpha Bank and Piraeus fell by 13% and 22% respectively. Alpha Bank had deposits of EUR1.1 billion in September and Piraeus of EUR821 million.
Clients withdrew their deposits from subsidiaries of Greek banks amid the crisis in Greece, which eroded their image.
Alpha and Piraeus were more affected by the wave of deposit withdrawals because they bear the same name as their Greek shareholders. Bancpost on the other hand has its own brand and tends not to be associated with its Greek majority shareholder, the Eurobank group.
Client perception of the difficult situation in Greece, as well as instructions from Greek shareholders for local subsidiaries to reduce their dependence on external financing have forced Greek-held banks to keep up pressure on deposit interest rates in the past few years, in an attempt not to lose too many clients.
The lack of resources and non-performing loan problems meant slimmer balance sheets for Greek banks. They reached a market share of 12-13% by assets, from 16-17% before the crisis.
The crisis forced Greek banks to restructure, with the top three Greek banks in Romania – Alpha Bank, Bancpost and Piraeus – closing down almost 60 branches and agencies, i.e. 10% of the total.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)