Austrian bank Raiffeisen is nearing an agreement to purchase BBVA’s Romanian Garanti unit for €550 million, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the outlet reports the bank intends to pay €550 million for the operation – around 1.2 times Garanti’s book value.

The sources cited by Bloomberg note that talks are advanced, but could still face delays or falter.

FStech could not independently verify the report. Raiffeisen declined to comment, and FStech has contacted BBVA for a response.

Raiffeisen’s Romanian subsidiary is already a major player in the market, posting revenues exceeding €20 million in 2024. Bloomberg reports that the purchase of Garanti would make Raiffeisen the third-largest bank in the country by total assets.

In January, Raiffeisen’s outgoing CEO, Johann Strobl said that the bank was considering deploying some of its additional capacity for deals in Romania, though he did not name any specific targets.

Romania’s banking sector is growing rapidly, with a 2024 report from the European Banking Foundation reporting a 14.6 per cent growth in assets held by banks in the country between 2022 and 2024. 65.6 per cent of the €161.5 billion in assets are held by institutions with foreign capital, though its largest bank, Banca Transilvania, is homegrown.

The proposed deal is consistent with a broader surge in European banking M&A activity. European banking deals rose from 183 in 2024 to 219 in 2025, with deal value more than quadrupling from $17.5 billion to $73.5 billion over the same period, according to EY.

In spite of this surge, some deals have faced hurdles, such as UniCredit's ongoing pursuit of Commerzbank – which is facing resistance from lawmakers in Berlin – and BBVA’s €16.3 billion hostile bid for Banco Sabadell which ultimately collapsed after being rejected by the Sabadell’s shareholders despite having cleared European Central Bank approval in September 2025.

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