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Queues, High Interest Rates Cause Romanian Bks To Lose Mkt Share – Poll

Romanian banks BCR, CEC Bank and several others are losing market share because of the long waiting lines and high interest rates, among other issues, according to a poll conducted by research company Synovate.
Queues, High Interest Rates Cause Romanian Bks To Lose Mkt Share - Poll
13 apr. 2010, 19:15, English

Other reasons for which the market shares of these banks are decreasing include bad positioning of the bank’s units and the low number of ATMs.

While before 1990 CEC Bank was the only savings bank in Romania, its market share had gone below 10% in 2000. The bank’s market share touched a low at 4% in 2006 and later it recovered to 6% at the end of 2009, by assets.

On the other hand, BCR, Romania’s largest lender, managed to stay on top despite the restructuring program started after the bank’s privatization in 2006. The market share held by BCR slided below 20% last year.

About half of Romanians have less faith in banks than they did before the economic crisis, while only 18% of respondents think well of local banks. International banks received positive opinions from 34% of the polled Romanians.

Romania is ranked fourth with respect for banking client loyalty, behind Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Russia. Some 37% of Romanians are strongly loyal to the banks with which they work.

The clients of CEC Bank, ING Bank and Banca Transilvania are the most loyal in Romania, according to Synovate’s survey.

Only 40% of consumers want the Government to save the banking industry using taxpayers money, while 39% of respondents believe their money is no longer safe in a bank.

Over 90% of Romanians believe the international crisis has damaged and will continue to damage the Romanian economy and the local banking sector.

The BCR brand is most recognized, slightly ahead of the BRD-Groupe Societe Generale.

The Synovate poll was conducted between October and December 2009, on a sample of 1,000 bank clients in each of the countries included in the poll, namely Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The poll covered 29 international banks, 211 local institutions and 13,000 bank clients.