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PERSPECTIVES

Postcard from Romania

May 11, 2016
Tibor Pandi, Citi Country Officer

Around the world, Citi Country Officers (CCOs) work to balance the execution of their country business strategy with their responsibilities ensuring the safety and soundness of the Citigroup franchise. Through this blog series, we are pleased to share perspectives from CCOs around the world, as well an insider's look at the countries and cities where Citi operates.

Tell Us About Romania

Official language: Romanian

Currency: Romanian Leu

Population: Around 20 million

Capital: Bucharest

Weather: Temperate climate, with cold, cloudy, frequently snow and foggy winters and sunny summers often punctuated by showers and thunderstorms.

Romanian Cuisine/ Best Places to Dine: Romania has a diverse cuisine, based either on meat – mainly pork or chicken -- or fish in areas close to the Danube Delta and the Black Sea. Signature national dishes include sarmale (cabbage rolls stuffed with spiced pork, rice and different spices), tochitura (pork stew with fried egg, cheese and polenta) or papanasi (fried doughnuts with sweet cheese, cream and jam). Especially in Bucharest there are quite a few very good restaurants, ranging from traditional Romanian cuisine to international, including Italian, Turkish and French.

Favorite Local Beverage: As one of Europe's largest wine producers, Romania takes pride in its high-quality local wines. Another well-known local beverage is țuica, a plum brandy most frequently home-made using traditional methods.

Best Tourist Sites: In the past six years I've spent in Romania with my family, I've explored the country extensively, traveling to the Danube Delta, Bucovina, Balea Lake and Bran Castle. Tourists can enjoy a magnificent mix of mountains, coastal areas, medieval villages with medieval castles and painted monasteries, vibrant cities and extremely friendly and fun-loving people.

What I Love About Romania: Definitely the people. They are open, kind, speak numerous languages, and know how to live well and have fun. In many ways, they resemble the people in Serbia where I grew up, so coming here was in many ways like going home again.

Country Profile

How many years has Citi been in your country?

This year we're celebrating our 20th anniversary in Romania.

What business units operate in your country?

In Romania, Citi is a corporate bank supporting the growth and success of multinationals, the public sector and small and mid-sized enterprises. We provide our institutional clients a wide range of high-quality financial products and services, including corporate and investment banking, markets and securities services, cash management, commercial cards and trade finance services, with a comprehensive suite of digital-enabled platforms, tools and analytics. Across all of these business, we're focused on maintaining a team of talented and trusted people and relationship managers who directly oversee client relationships in an individualized way.

What are the opportunities and challenges of doing business in your country?

The opportunities are sizable given that Romania is a stable country with sound macroeconomic fundamentals. The economy is growing at an above-average pace for the EU, has a young and educated population, is an integral part of both the EU and NATO and is independent in its energy sources. Given its size and relative gap to EU average salary levels and overall state of development, Romania could benefit significantly from merely closing the gap with EU neighbors. Many international companies have realized this and invested accordingly. Following the slump in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, both investment and consumption have started to pick up again. At Citi we're well positioned to help the country to grow, by serving international companies with a presence here or supporting Romanian companies to grow abroad. The challenges in Romania are similar to those we see in virtually any emerging market. The level of institutional development remains below average while some sectors are still quite inefficient. Legislation and infrastructure continue to create obstacles for doing business in the country compared to the ease and efficiency of working in more developed economies.

Personal/ Professional Background

Where were you born?

Novi Sad, Serbia.

What did you study that helped you prepare for a career in banking, and were there any subjects you realized subsequently would have helped you?

I studied Business Administration at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences. What I realized after completing my studies, however, is that in those days the system did not prepare you for a career in banking. The best training I received was as a young analyst at one of our competitors in the '90s, and later on through a multitude of various trainings in Citi.

What other roles and countries have you worked in at Citi?

I started with Citi in 2001, when I joined Citi Hungary as relationship manager for the Non-Presence Countries (NPCs). I covered corporate and public sector clients and financial institutions. In October 2004 I was promoted to Central Europe NPC Head, leading our NPC business in 12 countries across Central and Eastern Europe. In 2010 I became Citi Country Officer of Romania and two years later took over the cluster management of our Romanian and Bulgarian franchises. In October 2014, my responsibilities expanded when I became the Corporate Banking Head for the region, covering Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Role and Responsibilities

How do you maintain work-life balance? What do you do in your free time?

That is one of life's many puzzles that I'm still trying to solve, but I hope I'm getting better at it. Family is clearly at the center of my plate when it comes to allocating my free time, but I also enjoy playing sports – almost any sport – because after being strapped for hours in a plane seat or sitting in meetings, it can feel great to move. I also like to spend time testing, studying and reading about watches and cars, both of which are old and perpetual passions.

Bran Castle, Romania

Bran Castle, Romnia

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