EFG Retail Services, the consumer lending arm of Greek group EFG Eurobank, which also owns Bancpost domestically, has raised its share capital by 25.7m euros (90m RON), to almost 26m euros. The capital increase was necessary in order to "sustain the company's future growth," according to EFG Retail Services.
The number of customers reached 450,000 in late September, up 20% against the first nine months of last year.
"In late September, we saw the volume of released loans increase by 40% on 2006," stated company officials, without specifying the value.
According to EFG Retail Services officials, the increase was registered amid product alignment to market requirements and territorial expansion.
"We expect this year's upward trend to continue next year. We believe growth will be driven by continued market development, the launch of new financing products and by card owners becoming more familiar with financial products and their benefits, resulting in a significantly higher rate of cards being used for transactions," explain EFG Retail Services officials.
Other consumer lending firms that published their financial figures after the first 9 months include Cetelem, the specialised arm of NBP Paribas French group, which in late September registered a loan volume worth 213m euros. TBI Credit, the specialised arm of TBI group, reached a loan volume worth 90m euros after the first 3 quarters.
In line with NBR data, consumer lending slowed down in September, to 5.5%. At the end of the first 9 months of 2007, the volume of consumer loans had reached 47.3 billion RON (14.1bn euros). Still, the annualised growth rate continued to pick up speed, and climbed to almost 69%.
RON lending increased by around 3% in September, to 29bn RON (8.6 billion euros), while foreign currency loans dropped from 15% to 9%.
EFG Retail Services @N
