MANAGING THE BANKS NETWORK OF BRANCHES – TODAY AND TOMORROW

The network of branches represents the backbone for commercial banks and their main distribution channel for financial products and services. The rapid growth in number of bank branches registered between 2004 and 2008 was a consequence of the low banking coverage in Romania compared to de European Union average and market opportunities for the foreign banks. As the global financial crises effects stroke the Romanian banking sector at the end of 2008, the management of the branches network also became an issue, but the adjustments and changes implemented were scarce. Since the future economic forecasts do not look very promising, the banks started to implement different methods and methodologies in order to make the step from development to optimization of their network of branches.