BRD – Groupe Société Générale
The second largest bank in Romania with a market share varying between 15% and 23%, BRD has undergone a deep internal reorganisation, working to Société Générale norms, and achieved a significantly improved set of results in 2005.
Focusing on developing its network, BRD doubled the number of branches, opening two a week to bring the total to more than 360 by March 2006, a growth of 73% since the end of 2004.
As a result, the bank showed a 54% increase in net profits in 2005 along with a 65% rise in assets and an improvement in RoE to a handsome 37% from 30% the previous year. The bank’s growth strategy, retail focus and successful card campaign at the end of 2005 has allowed it to win 300,000 new customers and boost loan volume by more than 100%.
Patrick Gelin, chairman and CEO, says: “The award is the second to BRD by The Banker in the past three years and it confirms the viability of the bank’s main strategic orientations. We have oriented our efforts towards developing the network, implementing new products and services in both retail and corporate banking, and integrating new business lines.
“As a consequence, we succeeded in building around BRD a strong financial group, able to fulfil the ever-growing need of well-performing financial products in a country that will become a full member of the EU on January 1, 2007. While using efficient management methods, BRD proves to be a genuine market maker.”
