The Austrian Raiffeisen group, which purchased Romania's Banca Agricola (Agricultural Bank) in 2001, is now planning to participate into the privatisation of the Savings Bank (CEC), aiming to consolidate its position on the Romanian market. It also hopes to become the number two in Romania, ahead of BRD (Romanian Development Bank) - Groupe Societe Generale. "Raiffeisen is prepared to fight Erste Bank for CEC, and the experience we gained after acquiring Banca Agricola will help us with this project," Herbert Stepic, RZB vice-president and president of Raiffeisen International (the entity controlling the group's subsidiaries in the region) told Ziarul Financiar. Banking sources have recently pointed to Erste Bank's growing interest in the privatisation of CEC, with the Austrian bank already putting together a team to deal with this operation. Although it has made great efforts to restructure Banca Agricola, Raiffeisen is determined to seize this new opportunity, in order to strengthen its position in Romania. "We are well aware of the problems at CEC, with its vast network that lacks IT support, but our experience with Banca Agricola will be of great help. We are interested in gaining access to a different market segment and CEC can provide this," Stepic stated. The Raiffeisen official is confident that the CEC privatisation will be completed before the sale of BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank), Romania's largest bank, considering the pressure being applied by the European Union. Prompted by the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the Romanian Government released the privatisation procedures for CEC last month, creating a shortlist that includes six investment banks. In September, one of these banks will be selected to advise the government on the sale of CEC. Before it can officially enter the competition over CEC, Raiffeisen plans to overtake BRD an