• Bankia now offers a multi-channel personal manager to 150,000 customers, which will triple in 2017
  • Products contracted online grew by 25% last year and now accounts for 7% of the bank's total
  • 'We intend to offer the best combination in the market with excellent service quality at a highly competitive price, which cannot be sustained over time if we were not highly efficient'

The chairman of Bankia, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, today announced that the new strategy launched on 11 January to abolish fees has resulted in 85,000 new salaries and pensions being deposited during the first five months of the year, and the issue of 282,000 new debit and credit cards to customers.

In his speech at the course entitled 'What have we learnt from the crisis?' organised by the APIE (Association of Financial Journalists) in Santander, Goirigolzarri recalled that the purpose of the bank's new position was to increase the level of engagement among existing customers.

However, Bankia has also recorded an increase in its capacity to attract new customers. In May alone, more than 22,000 new customers joined the bank, 'The best result in our history and above the target that we had set for ourselves of attracting 20,000 new users each month'.

'It's early days and the data is very preliminary, but it makes us highly optimistic looking to the future. Ultimately we intend to offer the best combination in the market with excellent service quality at a highly competitive price, which cannot be sustained over time if we were not a highly efficient bank', explained Bankia's chairman.

Technology has been a great driver in the search for this efficiency, since it significantly reduces process costs while improving the customer relationship, said Goirigolzarri, who explained that, 'We are cutting the amount of time required to arrange a mortgage at a branch by around 50% and we are achieving similar percentages for loans to SMEs'.

The results of digitalisation

He went on to say, 'For us, digitalisation is an ambition and not a threat, because if we understand how to manage it appropriately, it will be a source of opportunities'.

The bank already manages to contract 45% of its consumer credit transactions through non-branch channels and online sales already represent 7% of the total after growing 25% last year.

In terms of transactional operations, transactions carried out via non-branch channels have risen 14% (58% via mobile devices), but have fallen by 6.5% in branches. 'All of this is logical if we remember that 34% of customers are digital customers and this figure is growing at 20% annually', said Goirigolzarri.

Bankia is offering these exclusively digital customers a personal manager that they can contact via their preferred remote channels and chosen times of the day, since they are available morning and afternoon. This service, called 'Connect with your Expert', is currently available to 150,000 customers, which will triple to 450,000 next year.

Goirigolzarri explained that customers that have a personal manager who is also proactive have far higher satisfaction levels compared to other customers. Moreover, those served via the 'Connect with your Expert' channel purchase 25% more products than those that use the traditional service.

Bankia's chairman acknowledged that 'this trend in the use of virtual channels by customers is more than just a sociological phenomenon started by our bank. We are trying to understand these trends and adapt to them and I believe that we are doing this at the right pace', he said.

'At Bankia, we have clear ideas about what should drive change -the customer- and understanding customers' needs can guide us in this process. We need to be obsessive about adapting to their needs and demands, and the faster the better', said Goirigolzarri.

Future challenges

'We have built the most efficient franchise among the major Spanish banks and have the highest level of solvency', claimed Goirigolzarri, and these two strengths 'will help us to tackle the two or three complicated years that lie ahead for the sector. Today Bankia is an institution with a profitable business model that generates capital to finance its growth and distribute a growing dividend among its shareholders', all of which is in addition to the 'motivational boost' that the bank's team has received from its recent performance.

Regulation, pressure on revenues and strategic tensions will be major challenges in these coming years. He warned that in this environment, 'Constant suspicion about banks may push society to make decisions that will prove untenable in the medium-term'.

He pointed out that the Spanish banking sector offers excellent service quality and that SME financing is the cheapest in Europe, when adjusted for each country's risk premium, which also applies to personal mortgages. The low rates of recent years have reallocated €13 billion in income, from banks' revenues to households. Some €21.33 billion was paid in mortgage interest in 2012, which fell to €8.32 billion in 2015.

Goirigolzarri highlighted the importance that banks are allowed to earn money, because 'unprofitable institutions cannot raise capital and cannot finance the economy, which has an immediate impact on wealth creation and employment and, more specifically, on people's standard of living'.

Bankia SA published this content on 16 June 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 17 June 2016 14:19:45 UTC.

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