BRE looks south

The company's Mbank model proved successful in Poland, and now the management is keen to implement it in Poland's southern neighbors. At the moment BRE Bank is analyzing the potential of the two markets.

"Initial results of our analysis are very promising. The Czech and Slovak markets are very similar to the Polish one, but while in Poland all the big international players are already present, only some of them operate over there," said Sławomir Lachowski, BRE Bank's CEO.

"The prices of financial services in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are higher than in Poland. This  creates great potential. But whether the potential will lead to the realization of the plan depends on many factors," he added.

BRE Bank is already present in the Czech Republic, where it holds a 50-percent stake in factoring company Transfinance. In Hungary, it holds 50 percent of shares in Magyar Factor and in Austria BRE Bank controls Intermarket Bank (55 percent of shares) - the leading factoring institution in the country.

In the first three quarters of 2006 BRE posted a zł.306-million net profit, 53 percent more than in the same period of 2005. The bank has increased its financial prognosis for 2006 from the previous zł.380 million gross profit to zł.490 million gross profit, zł.150 million more than the previous year.