Roland Berger, Codrut Pascu: Romanian banks don't know their clients and services can be much improved

Romanian banks know very little about their clients in contrast with the European financial institutions, a Roland Berger study indicates. One explanation addressed the amount of time banks employees spend with administrative issues, an aspect that comes against knowing their customers.

„The answers we got from banks, following some studies we carried out, show an unbelievable low level of clients awareness in Romania. Practically, local banks know less than 30% their clients’ actives, under 40% of the real estate assets the clients hold and so on”, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Managing Partner Codrut Pascu said.

Pascu added that in Romania, at least 20 minutes of one working hour are allocated to administration elements, an aspect which puts pressure on the quality and time allocated to the customer.

„In Germany, a bank knows if a client is somebody that travels frequently, so they send personalised offers from time to time, beside the classic services offers. Or if one is passionate by sport, he/she is offered products that could be used in exercising that hobby. In France, clients can choose the services they need, depending on what time of the year or of their life they are going through”, Romania’s Roland Berger chief said.

According to him, the most interesting pattern is the Spanish example, where the client interaction system is very well set up. „If, for example, one client draws cash out from a cash machine in an airport, the bank is notified in real time that the client is in an airport and is due to travel. Therefore, the bank sends the client an SMS with travel insurance offers or other services tailored for travelling”, Codrut Pascu concluded.