Petr Borkovec had his own bank in his plans and dreams for a long time. When he talked regarding it sometimes, many people would tap their foreheads in disbelief because they were convinced that he might never do it. “I didn’t notice it that much before, but I found that the skepticism was really significantly greater than I thought. Some banks in particular thought we wouldn’t give it,” she is smiling today. As a co-owner of the Partners financial consulting group, on Wednesday he officially opened the long-established Partners Bank, which wants to shake up the domestic banking waters. It bets on consulting and mobile access.
The new bank in the Partners group has been intensively developed over the past few years. At the same time, they negotiated with the Czech National Bank for a key banking license, which was granted to them following several increases in the share capital to the final three billion crowns. The launch of Partners Bank was also supported with capital by prominent Czech businessmen. Tomáš Čupr from Rohlík, Jan Barta, Dušan Šenkypl and spol. together hold a total of 18.8 percent. from Ondřej Fryc’s Pale Fire Capital and Reflex Capital. The rest belongs to Petar Borkovec, his long-time partner Radi Lukeš and thousands of managers, directors and employees of the Partners group.
Together, they want to build a bank that would like to reach the milestone of one million clients by 2030. “We want to be the fastest Czech bank with a million clients,” reports Petr Borkovec, although he admits that paper and presentation can withstand anything. It remains to be seen how much interest there will be in the new banking house. In recent months, Partners Bank has been running in test operation, during which it acquired the first two and a half thousand clients who made transactions for 1.5 billion crowns and whose deposits reached 200 million crowns. This year Borkovec and spol. to close on 80 thousand adult clients and ten billion in deposits.
Partners Bank’s mobile application
It is by far the most ambitious project the co-founder of Partners has ever undertaken. “Getting three billion, putting together an entire ensemble and an IT team that is able to build a completely new bank in the cloud and on the greenfield… It is by far the biggest project we have ever done, but at the same time it is mainly a continuation of our journey that we had planned We knew a long time ago that we wanted to combine consulting with banking, but we weren’t mature enough to do that,” says the forty-six-year-old financier.
Now it offers the Czechs a bank that is supposed to be interesting precisely because it combines classic banking services with consulting. Partners have been dedicated to this for many years and have a network of two thousand advisors. “The concept of advisory banking makes it possible to connect modern technologies with the personal approach of financial and banking advisors and thus facilitate the financial management of clients and support their financial growth.” its boss Marek Ditz, who spent twenty-five years in high positions at ČSOB, explains the proposition of the new bank.
In the mobile application, clients can find not only their current or savings accounts, but also all information regarding their finances, from loans to insurance and savings to investments. For example, they will be alerted to the approaching anniversary of the insurance contract and, in addition, they will immediately receive a comparison of the current offer on the market. It will then be possible to arrange new insurance directly in the application once more, preferably at the new insurance company. Soon, people will be able to choose their advisor as well.
Partners Banka will function only in the mobile application (it will not have an internet interface), through which you will soon be able to open a new account as well. In the first phase, the bank is accessed through the Partners advisory network. There are three variants of service packages on offer, which, according to Mark Dietz, reflect the life cycle of clients, from individuals to couples to families.
In the package for one user, all services, including keeping a current account or withdrawing money from ATMs worldwide, will be free. Only foreign payments (not SEPA payments) are charged a fixed fee of 200 crowns. The attraction for new clients should be a savings account with a high interest rate of 6.03% pa, which is free of fees and without restrictions on the amount of deposits.
“We will reduce the interest rate on savings accounts based on the CNB’s steps, but our philosophy is to keep the rates at the top of the offer in the Czech Republic, especially for paid packages in the long term. For free accounts, clients will need to make at least five monthly payments with us from the fifth month if they want to keep the high rate.” explains Petr Borkovec. The other two packages on offer are paid for, and are for couples or families with children.
Partners Bank’s mobile application
In the package intended for two users, which costs 49 crowns per month, a shared account is available, to which both users have the same rights and both account owners are equal. They have their own cards and, in addition, everyone also has their own checking account. “A joint account offers an effective solution to complications in the event of unexpected and difficult life situations, such as the death of one of the partners. A couple can also share savings together, and share information regarding investments, insurance or loans.” explains the head of Partners Bank, Marek Ditz.
The third package is aimed at families and for 99 crowns per month, in addition to the same benefits as for couples, it also offers the option of connecting accounts for children, who can save in their own mobile application and also pay with their own card. At the same time, parents have an overview of all their transactions and decide how the child can use the card, what the limits are and what they can pay for. Parents can also set regular pocket money or specific tasks directly in the application, to which the payment of the reward is linked.
Unlike many competitors who abandon this strategy, Partners Banka will also bet on a wide network of branches. Thanks to its consulting structure, it currently has 175 in the Czech Republic, and another twenty-five are being built every year. Of the Czech banks, only Česká spořitelna, Komerční banka and ČSOB have more of them, and Petr Borkovec believes that they will soon become number two on the market in this regard. In the future, it would penetrate among the biggest players in the number of clients. Today, Česká spořitelna, ČSOB, Komerční banka, Raiffeisenbank, Moneta, Fio banka and Air Bank have more than a million of them in the Czech Republic.
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