Three-step strategy for CEC, no privatization

“Client fidelity is extremely important for us. Our studies show most CEC clients are middle-aged, which means we must also make major efforts to attract younger clients,” Ghetea said.

The President added that he wants CEC’s value to equal or even exceed the average of the Romanian banking market in terms of productivity per employee, operation volume per employee, and cost/revenue balance, as the first step of the strategy. The second step concerns the bank’s development, according to which CEC must enter the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market, and try to gain a major share of businesses in rural areas and small towns (with less than 50,000 inhabitants). The bank’s management, appointed on May 10, said its mission is to turn CEC into the market leader for operations in rural areas and small towns. As for the third stage of the strategy, estimated to end in 2011, CEC eyes a 5.5-6 percent market share in assets, according to Ghetea.

For the loan sector, CEC targets a 5-6 percent market share overall, and 20 percent for individuals and SMEs in rural areas and small towns. CEC aims to obtain a 7-8 percent general market share for deposits, and a 25 percent share for its target clients.

Economy and Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian, who was at CEC headquarters yesterday, said the savings bank will not be privatized soon, because “it is unwise to privatize for the sake of privatizing.”
The government withdrew its offer to privatize CEC in 2006, as offers for the share package available for sale by the state were too low.

''Most CEC clients are middle-aged, which means we must also make major efforts to attract younger clients'' Radu Gratian Ghetea President, CEC