Andras Takacs, managing director for wealth and investment management, OTP Bank
OTP Private Banking (OTP PB) has won the ‘Best Private Bank in Hungary’ award for the 8th consecutive year at the PWM/The Banker’s Global Private Banking Awards. All together this is the 13th country or regional trophy awarded to the wealth management arm of OTP Bank in the last 12 years.
OTP Private Banking operates as one of the major business lines of OTP Bank, providing dedicated private banking services in 11 countries across the CEE/CIS region to almost 72,000 clients and managing EUR8.4bn in client assets.
GROWTH AND PROFITABILITY
During the last ten years in Hungary, OTP PB has produced a yearly average of 14.5% above the market asset growth. 2019 was an even more outstanding record year for the private bank of OTP Bank Hungary, both in terms of asset growth and net new money generation. Assets under management amounted to HUF 2116bn (EUR 6.4bn), an increase of 25% from the previous year. It was the highest growth rate in the history of the business line. Main driver of growth was definitely net new money generation as two-thirds of the increase was generated by the all-time-high HUF 324bn fresh money inflow. OTP Private Banking managed to increase its leading market share from 35% to 36.1% which has been maintained in the turbulent period of 2020.
“Due to the perfect combination of a favourable business environment and the appropriate growth strategic steps, growth dynamics reached record levels in 2019,” explains András Takács, managing director, head of wealth and investment management.
In addition to the outstanding growth performance, the profitability indicators underpin the achievements of the strategy. Despite the pressure on margins, operating revenues also reached record level of over HUF 18bn in 2019, represents an increase of 17.4%.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
In response to the challenges of digitalisation, a new dedicated self-service value proposition was added to the existing service range at the end of last year. The new service, “Direkt PB’, is the first private banking service in Hungary exclusively using digital channels. The new concept is provided by a centralised virtual PB hub based on remote elements, hybrid asset management solutions and new generation contact forms.
“In recent years, we have been putting a lot of effort and energy, and it has been part of our strategic focus, to shift traditional banking transactions towards digital channels. We have achieved serious results in this field, as 89% of our customers have access to internet banking, while 78% of transactions are made via digital channels,” Mr Takács explains. This high ratio of digital banking adoption proved crucial this year, making it easier for clients to adapt to all the remote services provided by the bank during the Covid-19 lockdown. It also allows private bankers to place stronger emphasis on value added service elements, like more focused investment advisory. Several digital developments have been brought forward due to the current pandemic situation. These measures have greatly contributed to guarantee the PB business running smoothly during the crisis.
In 2020, the key indicator of the PB business, fresh money inflows, continued to evolve above the plan despite the Covid-19 crisis, which is able to offset the effects of the volatile market performance. The number of private banking mandates also increased further in the first three quarters of the year.
OTP Bank headquarters, Hungary
