Hansabank
Hansabank, Estonia’s largest private bank, showed why it is a leader in the Baltic region once again last year, taking a huge chunk of both Estonia’s and Latvia’s fast-growing pensions market and unveiling a highly successful mobile banking service.
True to its reputation as a pioneer in electronic banking services, Hansabank last year launched mobile banking, an important channel for micro-payments. By the end of 2002, 170 businesses and 1000 customers were using the service. As of June 30, 2003, these numbers had increased by 500%.
The bank finished 2002 with another good performance, achieving an ROE of 21.1% and keeping its cost-to-income ratio very low at 43.5%.
“Hansabank’s performance is backed by strong volume growth in all the three banking markets in which we operate,” said Indrek Neivelt, the bank’s chief executive officer. “We have also been able to constantly improve operational efficiency. Active usage of electronic channels – in Estonia 96% of payments are made electronically – allows us to focus the branch network on sales and advisory services. In addition to developing banking services on the Baltic market, we have successfully launched leasing operations in Russia with a focus on transport infrastructure projects.”
