Slovenská sporiteľňa

Slovenská sporiteľňa is the oldest bank in Slovakia and was established in 1824 as a saving institution Erste österreichische Spar-Casse. The bank obtained a universal banking license in 1990 and expanded its service portfolio and started offering both retail and commercial banking to their clients. In 1994, the bank was transformed into a joint stock company and started operating under the name of Slovenská sporiteľňa. As a result of the privatization, the ownership of the bank was transferred from the government to the private sector and since 2001, Slovenská sporiteľňa has been a member of Austrain Erste Group, one of the biggest central European banking groups. The bank operates solely in the Slovak Republic, where it has been recognised as the Trend Top Bank for the past seven years (Slovenská sporiteľňa, 2019c).

For the past years, Slovenská sporiteľňa has been recognised as the “Bank of the year” for 20 times and has been holding a leadership position in the number of clients, managed accounts, issued credit and debit cards, branches, ATMs as well as market share of total assets, loans and deposits. In 2018 Slovenská sporiteľňa´s total assets and operating profit equalled to 17,4 billion EUR and 183,7 million EUR respectively. The bank also had around 2,2 million clients and managed over 6 million accounts. When it comes to the market share, this one reached 26,9%, which is the biggest in the Slovak retail banking sector. Moreover, the bank had more than 800

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ATMs and 4 126 employees working in 250 branches and 17 commercial centres (Slovenská sporiteľňa, 2019a).

Brand of Slovenská sporiteľňa

Slovenská sporiteľňa has been using a new logo, which is shown in Appendix 2 (Figure 11).

This logo is comprised of 2 elements – the name of the bank, where „Slovenská“ is in the bigger and bold font to highlight its strong Slovak roots and a letter S, representing the bond with Erste group. Dark blue and red are the colour scheme of the logo, symbolizing security, stability and trust for blue while the red mirrors passion (Detepe.sk, 2013). Responsibilities of the biggest player in the market are demonstrated in the bank´s mission “be a provider of financial services, which enable clients to fulfil their unique wishes and needs” as well as vision “to be the first-choice bank”. Business operations of Slovenská sporiteľňa embody these values – reliability, attentiveness, openness and simplicity (Slovenská sporiteľňa, 2019b).

Activities of Slovenská sporiteľňa are focused on three main segments, namely retail banking, business and corporate banking (incudes banking for towns, public and non-profit sector) and private banking. Bank´s retail portfolio includes daily banking services (accounts and cards), loans and mortgages, saving and investment services as well as various types of insurance. In the personal finance segment, the bank promotes a loyalty program, which reduces a fee for a personal account and rewards customers. Furthermore, clients can transfer all their loans from other banks to Slovenská sporiteľňa, which is also rewarded by 20 EUR for every 500 EUR transferred. In case of mortgages, customers can save 66 EUR as the bank pays for a property valuer and cadastral land register (Slovenská sporiteľňa, 2019b). In the field of banking for business and corporations as well as towns, public and non-profit sector, Slovenská sporiteľňa offers similar products and services, such as accounts, cards, loans, financing, treasury and investing. Lastly, private banking is meant for wealthy clients and offers portfolio management, investment in the mutual funds and bonds, trading with gold and diamonds and a premium package including a gold credit card and life insurance (Slovenská sporiteľňa, 2019d).

Being a market leader and the most profitable bank in Slovakia allows Slovenská sporiteľňa to invest resources in new digital technologies and innovations. Contactless payment cards and biometric signature are part of the portfolio with digital services. George is a smart banking application created by the bank itself, roofing both Internet banking and Mobile banking and is the most downloaded banking application in Slovakia. It can be used on all electronic devices and offers all the functions of Internet and Mobile banking. George is well-arranged, fully

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customizable to meet the needs of the most demanding clients, makes banking and managing finance easier as it automatically saves all the actions, provides intelligent and easy searching of transactions as well as is adaptive and acts as a digital wallet with contactless payments, such as QR code payments. Besides George, Slovenská sporiteľňa offers Google Pay, which will be soon followed by Apple Pay, once released in Slovakia. More flexibility and comfort are ensured through open banking that is also among bank´s offerings (Slovenská sporiteľňa 2019b;

2019e).

Regarding social media channels where Slovenská sporiteľňa is present, these are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. The bank regularly shares announcements and posts about existing and new products and services, sponsorships, campaigns, social projects, partnerships and awards as well as events and competitions. Clients are encouraged to ask questions as well as post their experience and feedback in the comment section where the bank frequently engages with them. On YouTube, the bank publishes videos explaining their products and services and their advantages in detail, videos about online security and business advice together with videos from events and videos about sponsorship featuring Slovak celebrities and sports teams. How to videos are also very common, however Slovenská sporiteľňa uses them to cover unusual topic, for example how to save money when buying Christmas presents. The bank cares about clients and provides an excellent customer care. Not only can people contact customer support on all the social media but also on the website, which provides a number of convenient options, such as online chat, call via a telephone and Skype, fill out a form, leave a phone number and the bank will call back. Moreover, there is also a separate sub-page on the website devoted just to feedback and suggestions.

Slovenská sporiteľňa takes corporate social responsibility seriously and integrates it into its operations. The bank focuses on three key areas where it provides financial support. First, Slovenská sporiteľňa supports culture and is a partner of a number of Slovak theatres and festivals. Second, the bank contributes to the development of sport and active living by sponsoring sports teams as well as organizing running and cycling competitions. The third field where Slovenská sporiteľňa draws its attention is education, especially financial literacy where the bank arranges lectures and various projects aimed for people of all ages to gain competencies and skills to make financial decisions. Slovenská sporiteľňa Foundation is another project through which the bank provides grants to support public-interest projects, children´s health, charity, start-up businesses, and journalism in Slovakia as well as life in Slovak regions. The bank also pursues a special project “Social Bank”, providing financial

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services and advice to low-income earners and non-profit organizations. In case of environmental protection, the bank considers its impact and continues to reduce the energy and paper consumption, employ more natural resources and improve criteria when choosing suppliers. Minimization of CO2 emissions is achieved not only by saving electricity but also by encouraging employees to cycle to work and opening free parking spots for bicycles. Lastly, Slovenská sporiteľňa protects birds from window strikes by applying decals and stickers on their premises (Slovenská sporiteľňa, 2019b).

Slovenská sporiteľňa and millennials

To target millennials, Slovenská sporiteľňa offers a number of products and services with a lot of benefits. The bank has two types of accounts specifically aimed for young people – Space account Student for people aged 15 – 26 and Space account Young for those up to 28 years old.

After providing a confirmation of school attendance, students can enjoy a Space account free of charge and can join a bonus program where they benefit from discounts at selected stores and bank´s partners. The Space account Student can be open online on the website, where students can upload their attendance confirmation, meaning no branch visit is necessary. The second account – Space account Young can also be open online and used for a monthly fee of 2 EUR (compared to 5,90 EUR for an ordinary personal account). However, the more actively young people use this account, the cheaper the monthly fee gets and a discount of either 50%

or 100% can be obtained. Besides daily banking services and an access to Internet and Mobile banking George, holders of both accounts also get a VISA Sphere payment card with an unlimited number of payments which enables them to join a Sphere loyalty program with numerous benefits and discounts, free withdrawals from the bank´s and Erste´s ATMs and advantageous interest rates for deposits and lower loan instalments (Slovenská sporiteľňa, 2019f; 2019g). Furthermore, Slovenská sporiteľňa offers an immediate university student loans for any purpose with no annual fees for those aged 18 – 26 as well as government supported mortgages with lower margins and one-time contribution of 400 EUR for millennials between 18 and 35 (Slovenská sporiteľňa, 2019h; 2019i).

As part of the Space campaign targeting young people, the bank organizes events under a name

“We guarantee you will not fall asleep in this lecture”, where Slovenská sporiteľňa invites successful Slovak entrepreneurs and representatives of the biggest Slovak firms to give business, economic and financial advice. Due to a great popularity and demand for these sessions, the bank created an archive with recordings from the events and made it accessible on their Facebook page to all their followers.

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