A potential acquisition is the not the main priority, says Aris Bogdaneris, head of challengers & growth markets and member of the ING Bank board.
“The main priority for us is to keep the organic growth. The mergers &acquisitions process is not a top priority,” Bogdaneris says.
ING is a very strong bank. Romania’s potential is huge, it is a very attractive and important market, so Bogdaneris says he does not see why ING cannot reach 10% market share through organic growth. He is yet another ING official to come to Romania after in the fall of 2014 the ING chief executive officer Ralph Hamers himself came to the country. Hamers had run ING Romania in the early 2000s.
ING’s Bucharest branch ranked seventh in the banking system at the end of last year, according to the latest data available, and its market share was 6.3%. The bank has increased its market share by almost 3% since 2008 and climbed three places in the ranking.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)