“ We thought about what would be our ideal customer and defined some profiles that we can use in our services . From this , we started to understand what these clients ’ needs are – and I ' m not just talking about banking services ,” Mareș explains .
For Mareș , it ’ s about being there at the important stages of a person ’ s life , moulding services and products to best-suit the growing needs of customers : “ A person that is graduating university would probably need a loan to buy a house or start a career ; if they get married and have their first child , they will probably need some additional money to prepare . Savings could work the same way , because parents might want to invest or put some money aside for their children ’ s education and for retirement . What is the customer ’ s stage of life about from their perspective and not the bank ’ s ? How can we help these customers fulfil their needs ?”
It ’ s an unusual , yet not unheard of , approach to banking solutions , but OTP Bank is clearly succeeding across all areas – perhaps because it has its customers and employees at its very heart . “ Long story short , in everything we do , we put customers in the middle of it .”