Magazine: Fierce competition between banks

The switch to digital processes in customer management is continuous in Hungarian banks. This creates great challenges for them.

András Fischer
head of innovation
OTP Bank

András Fischer, OTP Bank’s head of innovation – retail banking told our magazine that customer needs changed a lot due to the new technological solutions of the last few years. OTP Bank started its digital transformation programme three years ago, the goal of which is to offer a better digital customer experience, ensure more cost-efficient operation and develop automated processes.

Gyula Fatér
head of consumer
Budapest Bank

We learned from Gyula Fatér, head of consumer at Budapest Bank that the bank had already made several innovative digital solutions available to customers. Last year they gave a complete overhaul to their online banking service, and introduced voice mining in customer service to measure customer satisfaction more efficiently. What is more, this June the Budapest Bank Mobile Payment service was launched. Development projects are also being implemented in the field of robotics.

Márk Hetényi
chief digital, retail and strategy officer
MKB Bank

According to Márk Hetényi, chief digital, retail and strategy officer of MKB Bank, in recent years they launched a mobile banking app, plus MKB Pay – a mobile payment solution via a virtual bank card service. MKB Bank was the first to give customers the chance to open a bank account by means of video chat. After two and a half years of preparation, at the end of June and the beginning of July they set up a completely new IT system, so that they can introduce further digital banking services in the future.

Martin Jarolím
head of retail banking division
K&H Bank

Martin Jarolím, the head of K&H Bank’s retail banking division informed us that last year and this year K&H mobile bank and e-bank users had the chance to start using many new services. One of these is the K&H mobile wallet service – customers with Android phones and a K&H Mastercard can use this to pay at POS terminals with their smartphones. The K&H e-portfolio application is for premium and private customers. Biometric signature verification is now also possible in all K&H branches.

László Hankiss
managing director of strategy and analysis
GRÁNIT Bank

László Hankiss, managing director of strategy and analysis at GRÁNIT Bank told: they have no physical branch network, and their experience is that consumer demand has increased greatly for fast, comfortable, innovative and cheap digital banking services, so the number of their customers is growing fast. They started offering a video banking affairs management service back in 2012. By using GRÁNIT Bank’s Video Bank service, customers can open a bank account from their home or workplace, because video customer identity verification and e-signature are used.

Zoltán Illés
managing director
Takarék Kereskedelmi Bank
business development directorate

Zoltán Illés, managing director of Takarék Kereskedelmi Bank’s business development directorate spoke to Trade magazin about the many innovative solutions that they had introduced in 2017. These include the branch on four wheels, the first fully automated branch with no clerk, opening the Takarék Smart Points, opening a bank account online in combination with a video call and a smartphone app. However, the Takarék Group won’t stop here, as they plan to launch further innovative solutions in the future.

K&H Bank expects constant changes in the area of the fintech revolution, but they reckon that these changes won’t turn everything upside down in the short term. GRÁNIT Bank has recently conducted a survey on the mobile banking habits of consumers. The nearly 1,000 answers have made it clear that the bank’s innovation work should focus on this direction in the future. Takarék Group has also realised how important the customer experience is, therefore they want to involve direct communication channels in direct sales.

MKB Bank is of the opinion that the fintech revolution provides banks with three opportunities: they can get closer to customers, with the help of Big Data and artificial intelligence technology they can make tailor-made offers to them and provide services that strengthen trust and improve the customer experience – we learned from János Pereczes, managing director of MKB Fintechlab.

Budapest Bank cooperates with numerous fintech companies in order to strengthen its digital presence. OTP Bank has launched its own fintech enterprises and they are also looking for cooperation opportunities with fintech companies. They even launched a startup accelerator: more than 200 international and Hungarian startups have applied for taking part in the first programme.

OTP Bank’s experts believe that it is an important change that banks must open their systems to financial technology companies – this way they will turn into some kind of ‘financial public utility service providers’. It is very important for MKB Bank to play a key role in open banking services. They are the first in the Hungarian market to offer Sandbox to customers. The bank is also busy expanding its API catalogue. Budapest Bank is also working on developing the connection platform required by the new rules and they are developing services that go beyond the traditional banking services.

Takarék Kereskedelmi Bank believes that modern bank account management systems are characterised by 7/24 service, scalability, multichannel and partner access support and the possibility to connect with a multilayer IT architecture. GRÁNIT Bank was the first in Hungary to make their bank account information API public in 2014, so the system of open banking brought nothing new to them. K&H Bank develops its open banking IT solution in accordance with the PSD2 regulation, and they keep monitoring how customers react to these. //