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ERSTE BANK HUNGARY Ltd.
Váci u. 48.
Budapest H-1132
Phone: (36-1) 373-24-00
Telebank: (06-40)-222-222
Fax: (36-1) 373-24-99
Homepage: www.erstebank.hu
E-mail: uszolg@erstebank.com
About:
ERSTE BANK HUNGARY NYRT. is member of the Erste Bank group; its mother institution is the Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG - a well-known name on the Central -European banking market with a 180 years history in Austria.
History of the Bank
The Austrian Erste Group entered the Hungarian market by purchasing the state-owned Mezőbank in 1997. Renamed Erste Bank Hungary Rt. on 1 October 1998, since then the bank has provided full-range financial services for its retail and corporate customers. During its eight years of operation the bank has expanded year after year at a rate that exceeded the market’s average growth, with an additional boost given by Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG purchasing Postabank és Takarékpénztár Rt. from the Hungarian state then merging its two banks in Hungary in 2004. The merged bank’s name became Erste Bank Hungary Rt. (since June 2006 Erste Bank Hungary Nyrt.)
Erste Group has become a decisive player of the Hungarian market by merging Postabank successfully, continuing the successes in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. Erste Bank Hungary Nyrt. has grown to be the second largest bank in the Hungarian retail market and the sixth biggest in respect of its balance sheet total, securing strong positions in the area of investment services and leasing as well. The financial institution serves nearly 900,000 private customers in its nationwide network of 150 branch offices, and owns, in addition more than 330 ATMs and about 650 POS terminals.
The integration of the two banks was executed in eight and a half months, a record-setting time, as no one had ever been able to merge two financial institutions in Hungary under such a short time. By now, the IT migration of the account keeping systems has been completed. In the course of the integration the bank operated uninterrupted and it not only retained its market share but was even able to increase it in certain segments (for example in the area of housing loans).
The positions held by the financial institution in the retail market are made even stronger by the strategic cooperation with Magyar Posta (Hungarian Post) according to which Erste Bank has been offering new financial services (investment funds, current account, bank cards) under a separate brand name in the postal network as of December 2004. As part of the agreement and cooperating with Magyar Posta, the bank intends to increase the number of on-line postal points (which are connected with the bank directly) from current 26 to 200 units until the end of June. In addition, the financial institution plans to open 20 additional own branch offices in 2005, making it the second largest sales network in Hungary.
In addition to traditional banking products, Erste Bank offers a full scale of financial services in Hungary. With its market share of around 10 per cent, the leasing company of Erste Bank and Postabank, also Integrated and engaged mainly in vehicle finances, is considered to be the fifth largest player of the Hungarian leasing market. Insurance and pension fund services are also on the rise. In the past three years, Erste Alapkezelő Rt. (Erste Fund Management Co.) has increased its market share from one per cent to nine percent and the assets it manages have exceeded HUF 100 billion by now. Erste Bank Befektetési Rt. (Erste Bank Investments Ltd.), providing investment services, is a market leader in stock exchange stock deals with its turnover of HUF 1,000 billion realised last year. For the second time in 2004 the company was awarded “Best Investment Service Provider of the Year” award, established by Budapest Stock Exchange.
In 2005, the integrated Erste Bank is putting the emphasis primarily on improving quality servicing of customers and intensifying efficiency. Based on its strategic objective spanning 3 to 5 years, the bank aims to increase its market share in respect of retail services to 20-25 per cent and to 10-15 per cent in the market of micro and small enterprises.
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