Bankia : permanently exempts digital customers from fees

• They will not pay for basic banking operations performed via the bank's new 'Cuenta On' digital account
• Bankia has two million multichannel customers, of which 230,000 use the 'Connect with your expert' service that serves and provides advice to customers with a more digital profile
• 'We want to go one step further in Bankia's strategy of not charging fees on operations that do not add value for the customer', said Fernando Sobrini, Deputy General Director of Retail Banking

Bankia is permanently exempting its digital customers from fees by launching the new 'Cuenta On' current account that will never charge fees for maintenance, administration, transfers or paying in cheques. Customers that use this account will also benefit from a free debit card, with no application fees or annual charges.

This product, which is available to both new and existing customers and does not impose additional requirements, is intended for users that have a digital profile. Consequently all correspondence on the account is in digital format and transactional operations are carried out via non-branch channels.

'We want to go one step further in Bankia's strategy of not charging fees on operations that do not add value for the customer, which is consistent with the bank's position, by launching a simple and transparent product as part of a customer-focused strategy. We are therefore further developing the process of digitally transforming the bank', said Fernando Sobrini, Deputy General Director of Retail Banking.

From now on, the 'Cuenta On' account will be the basic transactional product for the bank's digital customers.

Bankia currently has more than two million multichannel customers. Of these, 230,000 are users of the 'Connect with your expert' service, through which the bank provides personalised advice to customers with a more digital profile via the channel of their choosing and their preferred time of day.

The bank has now rolled out this service across the whole of Spain and has set itself a target of 250,000 users for this channel by the end of 2016, rising to 500,000 people using this digital format by the end of 2017.

No Fees

Exempting all customers from fees represents one more step in the bank's strategy launched in January this year to eliminate fees for retail customers that automatically pay their income into Bankia, and which was introduced in May to self-employed customers that pay their social security contributions or taxes via the bank.

Some 2.4 million retail customers and 146,000 self-employed customers were initially exempted from fees under this initiative, to which an additional 110,000 have been added that automatically receive their income or pay their self-employment contributions via the bank.

Bankia will continue to offer new proposals in the coming months as part of its strategy to be perceived by society as a close, simple and transparent bank.