Banca Comercială Romană last year sold about 220 kg of gold by means of both direct sales over the bank’s counters (about 30 kg), and also via mass affluent and Private banking means (about 190 kg).
BCR has so far sold 2.5 tons of gold to its customers. The average value of some major transactions (in terms of volume) exceeded 40 kg of gold / transaction and were performed by the Private banking division.
Since late 2013, BCR has offered its customers a chance to buy gold straight from the counter, without a pre-order.
“Our customers buy coins especially as presents for various private events (baptism ceremonies, weddings, anniversaries). Most ingot buyers go for “KINEGRAM”. These ingots (5-10 g) have a Lipizzaner stallion carved on as a safety mark (the position of the horse and the rider changes depending on the angle you look at the ingot from). People purchase this special ingot as a present for special occasions and may easily replace a piece of jewellery“, said Laura Hexan, head of BCR’s Retail Treasury Products Department.
The gold supplied by the Austrian Mint, which has an old tradition in this respect and which sells gold as coins and ingots to investors worldwide, is a top quality gold (999.9% purity). BCR sells ingots of various sizes, including the 2 g ones, and the best-selling coins are the 1/10 ounce (3.11g) 1 ounce ones (31.10g) ones - the so-called Filarmonica coins.
“Our data suggest men buy nearly twice as much gold as women do. In general, men buy coins or small ingots as presents to women and children for various occasions. In terms of numbers, customers purchased more coins than ingots. The total weight of the purchased ingots is higher than the weight of coins“, Ms. Laura Hexan also added.
Gold sales over the counter are available in 15 subsidiaries from all over the country – Iaşi, Cluj Napoca, Braşov, Arad, Craiova, Botoşani, Mures, Timişoara, Constanţa, Oradea, Pitesti and four of these subsidiaries are in Bucharest.
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 (over 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 dedicated to corporate clients, and 538 retails units located in most communities inhabited by at least 10,000 citizens 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.
Erste Group is one of the main suppliers of financial services in Eastern European Union. About 44,000 bank officers working in 2,800 branches in seven countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, and Serbia) assist 16.5 mn. customers. Erste Group reported a total asset pool worth €197,0 bn. and a 54.4% cost-to-income ratio at the end of Q3 2014. First-ranking common equity index (Basel 3 implemented partially) has improved to 10.8%.
BCR – External Communication
Cezar Marin, e-mail: cezar.marin@bcr.ro
For more details about the products and services provided by BCR, please use one of the coordinates below to contact us:
InfoBCR
Web: www.bcr.ro
Email: contact.center@bcr.ro
Telverde: 0800.801.BCR (0800.801.227), toll-free from all national networks.
Twitter: @infoBCR