Alpha Bank has been doing business in the Romanian market for the last 16 years and was in fact the first foreign bank to enter that market.

Over the last four years the Bank’s policy has been one of rapid expansion with branches being set up in the country’s largest towns and cities. That policy was suspended in 2009 due to the economic situation.

The Bank´s network numbers 181 Branches across the country.

For yet another year, Alpha Bank Romania performed exceptionally well when one takes into consideration the adverse conditions due to the international crisis and the intense competition in the marketplace. Its portfolio is of exceptional quality, with loans in arrears standing at just Euro 110 million or 2.6% of its entire loan portfolio. It should be noted too that Alpha Bank Romania is the number one bank in terms of loans per branch productivity.

The number of loans granted rose by 3.6% compared to last year, against an overall drop of -3.9% reported by the market, resulting in the Bank’s market share climbing to 8.9% compared to 8.2% last year. This has allowed the Bank to remain among the largest in the country with a loan portfolio of Euro 4.2 billion. As far as deposits are concerned, the rise was 15.9% compared to a 5.5% rate of growth for the market overall, which bolstered the Bank’s market share by 0.4%. EBT stood at Euro 50.7 million, up some 11% compared to 2008, but that figure was affected by the Bank’s impairment policy; impairment stood at Euro 74.3 million, which was up 124% in order to safeguard the Bank’s balance sheet.

The launch of new innovative products which were dynamically marketed contributed significantly to this excellent performance. In 2009 the Bank developed the ''Alpha Consignment Account'', an account for court judgement payments, the ''Alpha Anniversary Account'', a 15-week or 15-month time deposit account developed to celebrate the Bank’s 15th anniversary in the Romanian banking market, the ''Alpha Payroll'' account, the ''Alpha Cash Collector'', a company closure account, the ''Alpha Administrator'' account, for apartment building administrators and the ''Zootehnie Credit'' bridge financing loan for a Ministry of Rural Development programme. Several bank products were also modified in 2009 to offer more conservative terms to achieve safer financing.

One important event was that Alpha Bank Romania completed its new single financing system which successfully came online in November 2009. This application marks a significant change in the Bank’s IT system architecture and workflows.

Alpha Bank Romania’s successful performance was crowned with a series of awards and prizes such as the prize for Best Banking Strategy from the Business Arena journal for the roll out of its new IT system in 2009, and the Local Market Prudent and Balanced Strategy award, given at a special event entitled Bancheri de Top organised by the Romanian publishing group Finmedia. That award complements the distinction attained by the Bank last year as ''The most active bank in the corporate sector''.

For more information, please visit the site www.alphabank.ro