Erste Bank: Economic growth to triple assets of Romanian lenders

“Romania ended 2007 with a volume of banking assets similar to Hungary’s in 2001, and if we consider Romania’s economic growth potential, and the fact that some 10 million Romanians are not using banking services, a tripling of assets in the Romanian banking system does not seem exaggerated at all,” Muntz told Business Standard.

According to Muntz, local banking system assets could amount to €180 billion, compared to €63.4 bln in the first nine months of 2007. “This could be the highest growth in the Central and Eastern European area, both in terms of volume and pace of increase,” added Muntz.