OTP BANK
Switching-up thinking : challenges to opportunities “ Even before the pandemic three years ago , we realised that we had to completely change our offering – we had to innovate and we realised that innovation equals survival . So we had already started to work heavily on customer experience , process efficiency , the product portfolio , and the employee experience ,” outlines Mareș .
According to Mareș , OTP Bank – and the European financial sector at large – was facing three core challenges by the time 2019 had rolled around :
• The overcrowded financial market in Romania and wider Europe , where numerous competitors and universal banks are present in a small locale , limiting customer reach – “ We have about 19 million inhabitants in Romania , a large part of which is not industrialised , and we have around 40 banks in the system , with many of those being universal banks .”
• Loss of talented employees in the digital engineering and technology sector to Western tech giants , limiting the availability of top talent and , as such , innovation . “ All of a sudden they could earn much more , but stay in their homes to do so – relocation was not needed . And this put a lot of pressure on our offerings as an employer at the time ,” states Mareș .
170 May 2022