Every second person in Austria – 57% or 4.2 million people – is already making use of online banking services

Usage of online banking services has almost doubled in 10 years. Today, four million Austrians use online banking Services – one million of them through George, Erste’s digital banking platform who is expanding into the CEE region. „George will be introduced in the Czech and Slovak markets this year, followed by the Romanian market in 2018. By 2020, George will be available to all of Erste Group’s over 16 million customers in the seven markets in which the banking group is present.”, according to the press release.

Every second person in Austria – 57% or 4.2 million people – is already making use of online banking services. In 2005, this figure had still stood at a mere 28%. This doubling was driven by the growth in mobile internet usage through smartphones and tablets. As a result, interest in banking apps has also increased quite noticeably – from 12 to 27% over just the past three years.

“Among our customers, this figure has actually reached 33%,” says a pleased Thomas Schaufler, chief retail officer of Erste Bank.

Erste Bank und Sparkassen introduced the digital banking platform George in Austria two years ago and it is now already being used by more than a million customers. It has become evident that mobile usage is growing by leaps and bounds in this case as well: “We now see twice as many users logging into George through smartphones and tablets than through PCs,” as Schaufler explains.

Customer behavior has changed markedly as well: customers quickly look up account balances while on the road, block ATM or credit cards at the push of a button, or send a message to their bank advisor.

Amid strong growth in the digital banking area, an interesting aspect of customers’ views has become evident in a new survey released by Erste Bank and Sparkassen: while one in five Austrian believes that online/mobile banking will become even more important in the future, just as many respondents believe that in-person advice at bank branch offices will gain in importance (21%).

As Schaufler notes: “These survey results clearly show that our customers don’t want an “either-or” solution. People want to be able to choose the most suitable way of getting into touch with their bank based on their individual situation.” “Omni-channel” is the new buzz word at Erste banking: the goal is to deliver a consistently high quality of service through all channels, whether at a branch office, through online banking or via call centre services.

George expands beyond Austria’s borders

George was designed from the ground up to be a digital banking platform that is well-equipped to meet future technological developments. It is the only banking platform in the Austrian market with a plug-in store in which customers can purchase individual add-on features.

What makes this approach special is that third party developers too can offer their services. The regulatory basis for this is provided by the payment services directive (PSD2) of the European Union. As of January 2018, banks must make data available to third party providers upon a customer’s request at the push of a button.

George is already well-prepared for precisely this purpose thanks to its application programming interface (API). “George’s advanced and open platform will allow us to position it as something like the iTunes store of banking in Europe”, says Peter Bosek, a member of the management board and the chief retail officer of Erste Group.

In the future, the George store will also offer services and solutions from fintechs that offer real added value for Erste customers. Moreover, George is set to expand beyond Austria’s borders.

“George will be the standardized digital interface of Erste Group across CEE within the next three years,” Bosek notes. On a regional basis, the platform will be able to offer country-specific products and plug-ins, and cooperation with other banks outside the Erste Group’s core markets is also under consideration.