AnaCap Financial Partners (AnaCap), a mid-market private equity investor, has sold Equa bank (Equa) to Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) through its Czech subsidiary Raiffeisenbank as, according to a press release.
Based in the Czech Republic, Equa is a tech-enabled full-service challenger bank that focuses on private individuals and Small and Medium Enterprises segments. Equa has an omni-channel distribution strategy that combines an intuitive digital banking platform alongside a selective physical distribution network.
AnaCap has transformed Equa into a market-leading, digitally driven challenger bank. Under AnaCap’s stewardship, the bank has grown its deposit base and loan book by more than 12x, leading to increased market shares across all segments. A strong commitment to digital customer solutions via its market leading digital banking offering has also led to more than 36x growth in revenues.
Together with management, AnaCap has successfully implemented an accelerated challenger bank growth strategy with investment in innovation, talent and the effective application of modern technology. The strategy has seen the successful introduction of fully digital onboarding for new-to-bank customers with innovative multi-platform current account applications in tandem with efficient process automation and strong IT security combined with advanced anti-fraud systems and mobile application resilience measures.
Throughout 2020, despite the ongoing wider economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Equa has continued to increase its customer base to just under 480,000 – representing a 13 per cent year-on-year growth and a strong reflection of a Net Promoter Score of 81, compared to the market average of 30. Total balance sheet grew by 15 per cent year-on-year to more than EUR2.8 billion, while customer deposits increased by 16 per cent to around EUR2.5 billion.
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For the Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), Equa Bank it is not the first experience in terms of owning a digital-only bank. RBI was also the ZUNO’s parent company, a neo-bank launched in 2010 which targets people who conduct their banking activities mainly over the Internet and rarely visit bank branches.
Slovakia was ZUNO Bank’s first market in the CEE region with the Czech Republic to follow. In 2017 the bank was closed. Its clients were moved to Tatra banka in Slovakia and Raiffeisenbank in the Czech Republic.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
