BCR supports its clients and lowers interest rates on corporate loans

Bucharest, January 26th, 2010 - Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) has decided to decrease by 2 pp, starting February 1st, 2010, the level of the fixed reference interest rate for newly approved loans in Lei, and by 1 pp the level of the variable reference interest rate, both for ongoing loans and for newly approved loans in Lei.

"This decrease in the interest rate of loans is up to four-folds higher than the 0.5 pp reduction in the key interest rate, recently performed by NBR (National Bank of Romania). BCR thus diminishes the burden of financial debts of the companies, clearly showing that it is constantly acting to help its clients and the Romanian economy in general" stated Wolfgang SCHOISWOHL, BCR's Corporate Executive Vice-President.

The new levels of the reference interest rate start from 11.5% and vary according to the type of loan and maturity (on a short, medium and long term).

"We need to stimulate economic recovery as much as possible, both by reorganizing loans and lowering clients' interest rates, as well as by implementing solutions and programs able to generate economic growth. It will be a tough year and BCR is ready to keep financing good business projects developed by reliable clients", added Wolfgang SCHOISWOHL. BCR had good results on corporate lending in 2009, having obtained an almost 1.5% increase in its market share against the end of 2008.

BCR, a member of the Erste Group, is a universal bank dedicated to both retail and corporate customers. BCR is the leading banking organization in Romania, managing assets worth of more than EUR 17.2 billion (as of September 2009). BCR is the most valuable Romanian financial services brand. The bank is having 663 retail branches and agencies (for individuals and micro corporations) located in most of the Romanian cities with a population of more than 10,000 inhabitants. The corporate customers are serviced in 48 corporate commercial centers dedicated exclusively to SMEs and big companies. The bank provides to both retail and corporate customers a full range of banking products and services, including Internet banking, phone banking and e-commerce services. BCR issues 25 types of debit and credit card, and is the owner of the largest national ATM and POS network - over 2,000 machines and over 17.000 electronic terminals operational at the merchants, for card payments. BCR is currently the most important financial Group in Romania - it has operations both in Romania and abroad developed by its local branches, foreign banking subsidiaries and representative offices. BCR is also holding top positions on the financial market segments for leasing, asset management, housing bank, equity and pension funds supported by its domestic subsidiaries.

Erste Group is one of the leading financial providers in CEE. More than 51.000 employees serve 17 million clients in 3,000 branches in 8 countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine). As of 30 September 2009 Erste Group has reached EUR 203.6 billion in total assets, a net profit of EUR 720.1 million and cost-income-ratio of 50.9%.