Radu Crăciun was named President and Director General of BCR Pensii after being validated by the Financial Supervisory Authority at the beginning of April 2016, following his 2-year experience as Chief Economist and Research Director as part of Banca Comercială Română.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to use, at a different level, my experience of 6 years during which I’ve contributed to strengthening the private pensions system in Romania. I am honoured to join the BCR Pensii team, with many valuable people, together with whom I wish to keep BCR Pensii on the position of an active player and a reliable, long-term partner, for our clients”, stated Radu Crăciun, President and Director General of BCR Pensii.

The two private pension funds managed by BCR Pensii (Pillar 2 and Pillar 2) accounted, at the end of February 2016, for RON 1.78347 bn. in net assets, meaning an increment of 26.70% as compared to February 2015, and has managed private pension accounts belonging to 667.896 participants.

The BCR Plus Voluntary Pensions Fund managed by BCR Pensii saw at the end of February 2016, as compared to February 2015, an increase of about 19.40% at the level of net assets (3% over the average market value), an increase by 2.75% regarding market shares from net assets, and an increase regarding the number of participants, reaching 116,203 (about 16% more than February 2015)

Regarding the number of new customers who, during the latest year, chose a voluntary pension, as compared to the number of new customers during the previous year, BCR Plus increased by 22.16% (with calculations returning at the end of February of each year taken into consideration). BCR Plus also reported a 5% increase in the market share in terms of the total number of participants, which amount to 29.86% in February 2016.

The President of the Romanian Financial Analysts Association (Asociaţia Analiştilor Financiari Bancari din România / AAFBR), founder of the Independent Directors Association, former member of the Board of Directors of the Romanian Privately Managed Pensions Association (Asociaţia pentru Pensiile Administrate Privat din România / APAPR), Radu Crăciun managed the capital market analysis and research departments at ABN AMRO Securities (Romania) and ABN AMRO Bank (Romania) over a period of 10 years, and later was appointed Investment Director and then, Deputy Director of Eureko, company which manages two private pensions funds.

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BCR PENSII, Societate de Administrare a Fondurilor de Pensii Private S.A. was founded in 2007, whose activity focuses on the management of private pensions funds and voluntary pensions funds: Fondul de Pensii Administrat Privat BCR and Fondul de Pensii Facultative BCR PLUS. You can find more information about the pension funds managed by BCR Pensii at www.pensiibcr.ro.

The source of the information is the BCR calculations based on the data published by the Financial Supervisory Authority. Previous performances do not guarantee future achievements. Currently, BCR PENSII has a share capital of RON 191,000,000, with Banca Comerciala Romana as its major shareholder, owning 99.99%.

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Banca Comercială Română (BCR), a member of Erste Group, is the most important financial group in Romania, providing universal banking operations (retail, corporate & investment banking, treasury and capital markets), and covering specialty companies working on the leasing market, private pensions and housing banks. BCR is Romania’s No. 1 bank in terms of asset value (€14,4 bn.), in terms of client base and in terms of savings and crediting. BCR is also Romania’s most important financial brand, judging by the client trust rate and by the number of persons who consider that BCR is their main banking partner.

BCR uses a network of 22 corporate business centres and 23 mobile offices devoted to corporate clients, and 511 retails units located in most communities inhabited by at least 10,000 citizens in order to provide a full range of financial products and services. BCR is Romania’s No. 1 bank running on the banking transactions market, since BCR customers have the largest ATM network at their disposal – nearly 2,000 ATMs and 13,500 POS terminals, enabling customers to use their cards for shopping purposes, as well as the complete Internet Banking, Mobile Banking, Phone-banking and E-commerce services.

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Erste Group is one of the main suppliers of financial services in Eastern European Union. About 46,500 bank officers working in 2,800 branches in seven countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia) assist 16.2 mn. customers. Erste Group reported a total asset pool worth €202,6 bn. and a 56.1% cost-to-income ratio at the end of Q1 of 2015. First-ranking common equity index (Basel 3 implemented partially) has improved to 10.2%.

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BCR - External Communication

Alina Daneasa, e-mail: alina.daneasa@bcr.ro

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