Romania - U.S. Banks and Local Correspondent BanksRomania - U.S. Banks
All commercial banks now operating in Romania have international correspondent relationships, and all are members of the domestic inter-bank payment-settlement system.
Since 1996, Citibank has been the most well-known U.S. bank in Romania, owned by Citibank Europe. This is a credit institution authorized and supervised by Central Bank of Ireland. It carries out its activities in Romania by a branch, Citibank Europe plc, Dublin – Romania Branch. Although Citibank Romania does not engage in retail banking, it has corporate banking branches in major cities such as Bucharest and Timisoara.
Key Link: www.citibank.ro
In November 2018, a new American bank entered the Romanian market, including the retail banking sector. Greece-based Piraeus Bank was acquired by J.C Flowers, a private U.S. equity leader, and it became First Bank Romania. In April 2019, First Bank Romania announced the signing of an agreement with Israel-based Bank Leumi for purchasing all the bank’s holdings in its subsidiary Bank Leumi Romania. The purchase is yet to be approved by the National Bank of Romania and the Romanian Competition Council, and it is expected to be finalized within the second half of 2019.
Key Link: www.firstbank.ro
The Romanian financial landscape includes a number of international bank subsidiaries and several major Romanian banks. Most of these have parent corporations in other countries such as the U.S. (Citibank, J.C. Flowers & Co), Austria (Erste Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, and Porsche Bank), France (BRD – Societe Generale and Credit Agricole Bank), Italy (Unicredit Tiriac Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo Bank), Greece (Alpha Bank), Cyprus (Marfin ), Germany (Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank), the Netherlands (ING Bank, ABN AMRO Bank), Turkey (Garanti Bank), and Portugal (Millennium Bank).