Alpha Bank is the new holder of the fourth position in the ranking of banks' assets at the end of September, after it climbed from eighth position in 2006. UniCredit Tiriac, which entered the market in early June, ranks sixth, indicates data from the NBR's Supervision Department sent to the Romanian Banking Association.

Austria's Volksbank, which ranked eleventh last year, has now climbed to eighth, thanks to aggressive growth on the retail segment.

Both Dutch banks on the market lost ground since 2006, with ING having dropped three positions and ABN Amro exited the top ten, dropping to eleventh.

The data at the end of September reveals that only two of the top ten players managed to climb in the ranking, while five maintained their positions and three others fell.

The top three positions remain unchanged considering the large differences among the top three players, with BCR still the biggest bank in the system, followed by BRD and Raiffeisen.

The first change against 2006 is the fourth position, which was taken by Greece-based Alpha Bank. Nine months into the year, the bank posted 3.7 billion euros in assets and 100% higher loan volume.

Sergiu Oprescu, chief executive of Alpha Bank says the performance in the third quarter was helped by the exchange rate increase, since most of the bank's business is conducted in euros.

Alpha aggressively increased as a result of its network expansion (which should reach 125 units by the end of the year) and of the expansion of its retail offer. Greeks have recently revised their strategic plan, and aim to boost their market share by assets to 13% in 2010. The bank estimated a 6% share of the loan market in September.

Banca Transilvania (BT) remains the only Romanian held player among the top ten and maintains the fifth position, with 3.4 billion euros in assets in September.

Ro