Banca Transilvania leads Romania's banking market with 16.48% share in 2018

BUCHAREST (Romania), July 11 (SeeNews) – Banca Transilvania [BSE:TLV] became Romania's largest bank by assets at the end of 2018 with a market share of 16.48%, up from 13.87% a year earlier, the central bank said.

With total assets worth 74.3 billion lei ($17.6 billion/15.6 billion euro) at the end of December, Banca Transilvania leads the ranking for the first time, the central bank said in an annual report published on Wednesday.

In October 2018, Banca Transilvania merged with Bancpost, which it had acquired from Greece's Eurobank Group in April 2018.

Shares of blue-chip Banca Transilvania traded 1.02% higher at 2.4650 lei as at 1107 CET on Thursday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).

Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), owned by Austria’s Erste [BSE:EBS] ranked second, with assets worth 67.9 billion lei at end-2018 and a market share of 15.05%, down from 15.83% in 2017.

Erste Group Bank AG's shares traded 0.64% higher on the BVB as at 0967 CET on Thursday.

BRD bank [BSE:BRD], majority owned by French financial group Societe Generale, ranked third, with assets worth 54.08 billion lei and a market share of 11.99% at the end of 2018, lower than 12.5% in the previous year.

BRD's shares changed hands 0.60% higher at 13.32 lei at 11.03 CET on Thursday on the BVB.

The 10 largest banks in Romania held a combined share of 85.1% of the country's banking market at the end of December 2018.

Below is a list of the top 10 Romanian banks in terms of assets:

Total banking assets in Romania rose to 451 billion lei at end-2018, from 427.7 billion lei a year earlier.

Banca Transilvania was the largest bank in Southeast Europe (SEE) in 2018, according to the ranking TOP 100 Commercial Banks in SEE compiled by SeeNews in June.

(1 euro = 4.7337 Romanian lei)