REUTERS SUMMIT-Romania Raiffeisen CEO says consolidation is "unavoidable"

* Sees little impact of clampdown on bad loans on Raiffeisen

* Expects "no surprises" from asset quality review

* Says Romania needs predictable business climate

* Says impact of interest rate cuts may be limited (Adds quotes, details, background throughout)

By Radu-Sorin Marinas and Matthias Williams

BUCHAREST, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Consolidation in Europe's banking sector is unavoidable and could partly be triggered by the current asset quality review (AQR) of European lenders, Raiffeisen Bank Romania CEO Steven van Groningen told Reuters.

Van Groningen said at the Reuters Eastern Europe Investment Summit that Raiffeisen could look at taking over a smaller local lender if the price was right and it presented good value, but such a decision would ultimately be up to the bank's shareholders.

The European Central Bank is examining whether about 130 of the euro zone's top banks have properly valued their assets and have enough capital to withstand future crises, seeking to banish doubts about their health six years on from the global credit crunch. Results of the exercise will not be finalised until October.

"Consolidation is unavoidable anyway in my view," van Groningen said on Tuesday, adding he was confident the AQR would not hold "any surprises" for his bank.

"If I simply look at Romania, it is kind of difficult to see why would we need 40 banks and ... and with the ambition to be universal banks," he said in the Reuters office in Bucharest.

"I don't think that's realistic, that's not cost efficient, especially with the steadily increasing costs in terms of system compliance, capital, etcetera."

"So, I think it is unavoidable that we see consolidation and maybe it's a good moment to do it and maybe, who knows, the outcome of the AQR process will only contribute to it."

Van Groningen said the Romanian central bank's push for lenders to clamp down on non-performing loans would have a minimal effect on Raiffeisen's portfolio, adding he did not expect big surprises or hidden losses in the banking system.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in regional peer Erste Group, emerging Europe's third-largest lender, had tumbled in July as it warned higher provisions for soured loans in Romania as well as a law change in Hungary could drive it to a record loss in 2014.

"I am confident that our level is realistic: we're about half of the (NPL) average of the industry in Romania," van Groningen said.

Asked whether Raiffeisen had felt pressure to clamp down on bad loans in advance of the asset quality review, he said:

"We obviously are subject to the same rules, but we looked at it and it had absolutely negligible impact on our portfolio, so we had basically already done what the national bank asked us to do."

HORSE TO WATER

In neighbouring Bulgaria, the EU's poorest state, a run on deposits at Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) in June prompted the Bulgarian central bank to seize control of the country's fourth-largest lender and freeze its operations.

But such problems are an isolated issue in an otherwise decently capitalised banking system, Standard & Poor's rating analyst Kai Stukenbrock told Reuters in comments authorised for release on Tuesday.

Romania, the European Union's second poorest country, basked in a relatively high economic growth rate last year of 3.5 percent, partly driven by a one-off bumper harvest.

But growth has fallen off since then, and Raiffeisen predicts Romania will grow just 2 percent this year, lower than an official government forecast of 2.2 percent. Recent tax hikes and an unpredictable investment climate were also hurting the Black Sea state's potential, van Groningen said, especially with presidential elections due in November.

The Romanian government introduced a fuel price hike in early 2014 and a new widely-criticised tax on company buildings.

"You see that investments have gone down and that's again a sign of lack of confidence in the immediate future," van Groningen said. "We need a predictable environment, more or less predictable. Many changes make this very difficult ... companies just want to know what the level of taxation is going to be."

Van Groningen was speaking just before the Romanian central bank announced a further cut to its benchmark interest rate to a new record low of 3 percent, as low inflation gave it room to help an economy that is in technical recession.

He said that while there was an enormous amount of liquidity in the market, a lack of business confidence meant that appetite for loans remained very low.

"It's not only Romania, we've seen this everywhere ... you can lead the horse to the water but you can't make you drink. So even if rates are very low, people are very reluctant to consume ..." Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits (For more summit stories, see ) (Editing by Ruth Pitchford)