Slovak banks won’t survive if they don’t change their attitude towards customers radically, said analyst Ilja Ilit from consultancy company Capco at a press conference in Bratislava on Thursday. According to Ilit, the creation of a common European market via the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) has resulted in high pressure on banks to improve their services.
“For example, people working in Vienna and living in Bratislava may consider it more comfortable to have an account in Vienna, with an Austrian bank,” said Ilit. The analyst claimed that Slovak banks will have to cope with four fundamental challenges in order to survive - to offer polished basic services to customers; to provide comfort, opportunities for choice to customers and to allow them to have control; to help to achieve customers’ financial goals; and to meet customers’ social needs. The Slovak market is attractive for foreign banking institutions partly due to the good financial results of Slovak banks. While 170 foreign companies were registered to provide cross-border banking services in Slovakia in 2008, the figure had increased to 325 by March 2014. The good results of Slovak banks may not last forever, however, cautioned Ilit, pointing to the falling volume of loans for companies and decreasing interest rates on new loans. This means that only those who improve their services significantly will survive, he added.
