RBS has therefore kept branches only in Bucharest, Arad, Brasov and Cluj-Napoca (western, central and north-western Romania).
The restructuring also includes the former flagship branch opened in the World Trade Center in the fall of 1995 when ABN Amro bank arrived in Romania after its rival ING.
In 2010, RBS (the successor of the former ABN Amro Bank Romania) had 30 branches, but a year ago made the strategic decision to drop the retail business and focus on corporate customers instead. Staff was cut to 200-250 people, with those still managing the retail portfolio put in a separate team.
Henk Paardekooper, the chief executive officer of RBS Romania says he is satisfied with how the process has been going so far. “The current reconfiguration stage is done, but that does not mean there won’t be any more changes.”
He added gross profit was higher than budgeted last year, but cannot be compared with 2011 because of the restructuring of the business.
RBS Romania’s CEO says that the bank’s new business model no longer relies on a traditional network because customers do not need to come to the bank every day and can perform most operations online; for something more complex, RBS has dedicated teams that go to the customers.
The bank lost some of its corporate banking experts because of the uncertainty surrounding its future in the last few years. Paardekooper says it continues to attract customers, having signed several important contracts in the first quarter. One such contract was signed with cigarette manufacturer JTI.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)