Libra Bank’s growth is also reflected in territorial expansion and number of staff. Number of branches doubled from 5 to 10 and another 4 are planned to open by end of this year, while number of employees increased by 58 % compared to December 2004.
According to Axel Hummel, president of Libra Bank, the strong development of the bank is exceeding optimistic forecasts and is reflecting the huge efforts made in designing customized services and products, as well as setting clear and ambitious targets. “Our clients are appreciating our flexibility and the short response-time to their requests. Libra is offering the complete variety of services to big corporates, SME, professionals and consumers. I am very happy especially about the impressive growth in deposits, as this indicates the level of trust clients are putting into us.”
Concerning the development for total assets, Libra Bank has already managed to reach its 2005 business plan forecast after the first seven months of this year (USD 67 million), by doubling the total value of its banking assets vs. 2004. The revised target for the end of the year 2005 is now to reach total assets of USD 100 million.
For the next year, Libra Bank intends to increase its branch network up to 30 branches, to introduce cards and to implement a new core IT system.
About Libra Bank
Since 2003, Libra Bank belongs to the American investment group New Century Holdings (NCH), one of the most important foreign investors in Romania. NCH have invested over 2 billion dollars in Central and Eastern Europe, out of which over 200 million dollars have been invested in Romania. With the take-over of Libra Bank 2 years ago, a re-launch of the banks activity was initiated. Since 2004 Libra is benefiting from the efforts put in the restructuring and is showing 2005 one of the highest growth rates in the Romanian banking system.
