Banca Transilvania: 30 Years of Growing in Romania and Watching Romania Grow

Today is Banca Transilvania's birthday. Every anniversary makes us think of how it has been so far, what has been good, what has been challenging, what has moved us forward, and mainly of how it all started 30 years ago.

The bank's story started thanks to 46 founders, mostly from Cluj, who put together a capital of USD 2 million.

The bank’s first customers were the founders themselves, as well as their families, friends, and neighbors. We started with a single unit, Cluj Branch, and a team of 13 people, some of whom are still with BT today.

Most Enterprising Years 

1994’s Romania was rather grey. Just a few years after the Revolution, we were only dreaming of the European Union. Democracy and Romanian capital were at the very beginning. Banking used to be totally different. It was all about loans and deposits, as cards and ATMs came in much later. There were, however, many opportunities because the economy and the country were transitioning from a centralized system - where everything was owned by the state - to a decentralized model based on private ownership.

These 30 years have seen the biggest transformations for Romania - in economy, technology, lifestyle, living standards and financial education - and all these have always been related to banking, which has been a key contributor to change. For Banca Transilvania, this period has been both an opportunity and a challenge to keep up with all the changes in society. Then, the EU brought a breath of fresh air, with free markets and financing that helped the country develop, raise living standards, and increase competition, including among banks. In other words, BT grew up in a period that equals the most enterprising years in Romania's history.

From 15,000 to over 4 Million Clients  

There have been many ideas and achievements in all these years, which have written the bank's history: expansion in Romania (in 1994 we had 5 units), listing on the stock exchange, constant growth in the number of clients (in 1994, about 15,000 clients worked with us). Tuning our business strategy to the economic context after the 2008 financial crisis followed right after that. Over the past ten years we have accelerated our growth as a financial group through bank acquisitions and technology investments, which have validated our current high-volume business model.

Courage, Confidence and Optimism

BT’s success story is largely based on courage, confidence, and optimism. It is worth mentioning that in the first 21 years in business, the bank paid dividends to shareholders only in two years, in 1998 and 2009, and otherwise capitalized all the profit to grow and to get where we are today.

Banca Transilvania simply had that entrepreneurial spirit that provided the impetus to take the step into the capital market, to be the first bank listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Moreover, we are one of the companies that qualified Romania as emerging market, several years ago. The listing on the stock exchange came along with growth opportunities, helped us attract resources and provided the infrastructure to become a company with over 53,000 shareholders. For many years we have also been among the most traded stocks on the main market. As a local bank, we have always had the ability to act swiftly and to continuously optimize our business model. There have been many key moments, reinventions.

Romania is Our Geography

That's how we became the largest financier of the economy, but also the largest bank in the country and in Southeast Europe, with 21% market share, over 4 million customers, 10,000 employees, over 500 branches and state-of-the-art online banking solutions. We support over 400,000 entrepreneurs - from large companies, SMEs to start-ups. We are one of the largest employers in Romania and contribute around 1% of the corporate tax paid by all companies in our country every year.

We Look into the Future with the Same Confidence

We will be right here, supporting the development of the country and of the economy, contributing to the growth of the entrepreneurial culture, to people's prosperity and financial inclusion. We are aware of our role in Romania and have big future plans.

We are grateful to all our founders, shareholders, clients, and team for their contribution to one of the most beautiful stories in the Romanian entrepreneurship, Banca Transilvania.

Happy birthday, BT! 

Horia Ciorcila

Chairman, Board of Directors

Banca Transilvania      

Ӧmer Tetik

Chief Executive Officer

Banca Transilvania