BOC to open 5 branches in Russia, Romania

Bank of Cyprus Pcl (BOC) has ruled out takeovers in Russia and Romania where it has secured regulatory permission to expand, with a senior bank official telling Bloomberg that “in the initial stage, we shall open five branches.”

BOC General Manager Yiannis Kypri told Bloomberg that the bank will open up to five branches in Russia and Romania in the next 2-3 years and thereafter continue with the branch network expansion with the opening of a further five branches in the major cities. The first branch in Russia will open in Moscow.

Kypri said that BOC will announce its new business plan in January where new targets will be revealed. He said he was also confident that BOC would benefit from a new capital adequacy law according to which the bank will be able to expand its loan portfolio by lending a larger percentage of its foreign currency deposits.

Deposits in foreign currency are the equivalent of EUR 5 bln, which currently have a 75% liquidity ratio and the bank has a 1.7% margin, in contrast to the 3% margin on the other local currency deposits.