The biggest winner of the past decade is Banca Transilvania, as the Cluj-based bank increased market share 2.4 times in 2007-2016, to more than 13% of the total assets of the system at the end of last year. Banca Transilvania’s climb to the second spot in the ranking, a position that used to be BRD-SocGen’s was because of the rise in lending and of the acquisition of the local operations of Volksbank.
Other five major banks, Raiffeisen, UniCredit, CEC Bank, ING Bank, Garanti – have gained market share in the past decade. ING almost doubled it, climbing from tenth place in 2007 to seventh at the end of 2016. State-owned CEC Bank climbed three places, from ninth to sixth. On the other hand, the banks that lost market share in the past decade include BCR, the largest local lender by assets and Greek-held Bancpost and Alpha Bank.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)