Bank Millenium focuses on cost cutting and SME's

The president of Bank Millenium (BM) Boguslaw Kott confirmed on Thursday during the bank's general shareholders meeting that its main medium-term strategy are to substantial increase operational efficiency and to cut costs. He said that BM hopes to increase its ROE from 11.5% in 2002 to over 20% for 2003, while the ratio of costs to revenues would drop to under 60% from 63.4% in 2002. The strategy, which is to be accomplished by the end of 2005, also puts stress on winning wealthy clients and SME's. BM's goal is to capture 6.5% of the banking market. "It seems that the hard times for banks are coming to an end," Kott said. (Puls Biznesu, p. 4; Parkiet, p. 3) M.M.