Bankers switch to new service distribution channels in a move to cut expansion costs

Banks want to change expansion strategy and focus on alternative channels for the distribution of services, these being sold through brokers or via internet, because of the lower costs compared with the opening of new unit, bankers say.

Some 35 to 40 percent of the bank’s services could be distributed through brokers and another 20 percent of the banking transactions could be managed through internet, Piraeus Bank Romania retail branch manager, Catalin Parvu said.

Bankers say the development of such alternative channels would cut personnel costs, at a moment when the increase of salaries in the banking industry outpaced productivity.

A third of the employees in the banking system have less than one year of experience in this field, the head of Alpha Bank, Sergiu Oprescu said. Another distribution channel would be through the mobile phone, yet the banks in Romania do not offer such a service at the moment.

Radu Gratian Ghetea, the head of the Romanian Banks Association, told NewsIn such services could be introduced in soon , as the issue has been tackled in the last five years.

NewsIn