Partnership between Banca Transilvania and Patria Credit
Patria Credit IFN S.A. announces the conclusion of the partnership with Banca Transilvania concerning the service for collection of loan instalments
Patria Credit IFN SA, the largest non-banking microfinance institution in Romania, announces the conclusion of a partnership with Banca Transilvania, one of the major banking institutions in Romania, concerning the service for collection of loan instalments.
The new system for loan instalment payment, contracted with Patria Credit, is a free service which is available in all over 530 branches and agencies of Banca Transilvania, throughout the country.
Subsequently, Patria Credit customers, by means of the territorial units of Banca Transilvania, may make cash payments for loan instalments contracted with Patria Credit. For each contracted loan, Patria Credit customers are granted a card linked to the loan contract, which is not debit card or credit card. Each such card is marked with the bar code and comprises unique information for identifying each client's loan.
Any payment of a loan instalment is made by providing - at BT cash registers – the card related to the respective loan contract, the bar code marked on the card shall be read, and the cash amount shall be charged by the bank operator. For the confirmation of the loan instalment payment, Banca Transilvania must issue a receipt which must be checked and signed by the Patria Credit customer.
,, This partnership is part of the ambitious plans to develop Patria Credit, a challenge for us and one of our competitive advantages is the microfinance of clients coming from areas with limited access to financial services, by attracting those customers coming from yet inactivated social and geographical areas, within the economic cycle. We focus on this segment, we seek to promote simplicity, accessibility, transparency in relation to a customer which is less sophisticated, but very dynamic and, last but not least, to establish a long term relationship with this type of customer.”– stated Bogdan Merfea, General Manager of Patria Credit.
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About Patria Credit IFN S.A
the major shareholders of Patria Credit IFN SA are the Romanian American Enterprise Fund (RAEF) and the Balkan Accession Fund (BAF).
Patria Credit grants loans for the microenterprises segment and for the segment represented by agro producers in rural areas.
Our development strategy provides the access to rural areas, to the unexplored area and while supporting microenterprises in urban and rural areas. We believe this market has great potential based on the penetration of financial services in rural areas, which is well below the average
recorded in the banking system, giving a rate of at least 40% of Romania's population having no easy or direct access to financial services.
The amount of loans granted to customers in 2010 on 31 August this year by Patria Credit is approximately EUR 11 million, implying an increase by 150% in volume and by 230% in the number of loans compared to the same period last year.
On 31 August 2010 Patria Credit had a total number of customers of approximately 8600, out of which about 3800 legal entities (microenterprises) and agro producers and about 4800 Individuals.
Our objective is to expand and grow and at the same time we want to keep exposures and risks within a reasonable margin. One of our priorities remains the maintenance of a good quality portfolio. Our business model requires continuous maintenance of active customers, enabling us to permanently assess our customers’ repayment capacity.
We presently have a national network comprising 35 territorial units, out of which 13 new units were opened this year (5 urban units and 8 rural units) and our development strategy involves the extension of the network to 41 branches by the end this year.
For further information, please contact:
Patria Credit IFN S.A
Camelia Raileanu
