Banca Transilvania and PKO Bank Polski have signed a mutual client referral agreement to support Romanian and Polish companies seeking to expand across both markets. Under the arrangement, the two banks will refer corporate and SME clients to one another when those clients require local banking services in Romania or Poland.
The partnership is intended to simplify a key step in international expansion by connecting a company with a local bank that already knows the market. A concrete early measure will be the reciprocal opening of Nostro and Loro accounts denominated in Polish zloty and Romanian leu, giving companies access to accounts in each country's national currency. The two banks also plan to broaden cooperation in corporate banking and correspondent banking services.
The agreement was signed in Cluj-Napoca at Banca Transilvania's headquarters by Ömer Tetik, chief executive of Banca Transilvania, and Cosmin Călin, deputy chief executive for large corporate, together with Piotr Stolarczyk, vice-president of the management board of PKO Bank Polski, and Robert Wlodarski, director of international and institutional banking at PKO Bank Polski.
"Our clients are growing, and for more and more companies the next step is outside the country. The partnership with PKO Bank Polski creates a link between the business environments of Romania and Poland," said Ömer Tetik, chief executive of Banca Transilvania.
"Romania presents enormous potential for Polish businesses, and the increasingly close economic ties between the two countries are creating new development opportunities. Through our partnership with Banca Transilvania, we will help entrepreneurs establish local connections and access the services they need to operate abroad," said Piotr Stolarczyk, vice-president of the management board of PKO Bank Polski responsible for international banking.
For Banca Transilvania, the deal forms part of a broader effort to support Romanian companies expanding beyond the country's borders, as well as the Romanian diaspora. A recent related initiative is the bank's support for the Beyond Borders programme, launched by Endeavor România and Romanian Business Leaders, which connects Romanian entrepreneurs with business ecosystems, investors and Romanian business communities abroad. The most recent editions of the programme took place in Spain and Greece.
