BRE Bank intend to increase stake in banking sector

BRE Bank president, Wojciech Kostrzewa, announced that his bank plans to increase its market share from 6% to 10%, before Poland joins the Euro zone. He also stated that it would be deemed a success if the country achieved this before 2009. "Increasing the market share from 1.8% to over 6% has taken us seven years. I believe that another increase should not take us as long," added Kostrzewa. The planned market share growth will be based on retail banking, as the institution plans to double its number of individual clients over the next three years. Kostrzewa confirmed that the bank's entire retail section, including mBank, MultiBank and Supermarket Funduszy Inwestycyjnych, should be in profit by 2005. mBank itself, which has opened over 500,000 bank accounts and collected deposits worth zł. 2.2 billion, should produce an operating profit this year. (Parkiet, June 7-9, p. 4) M.M.