Tetik, Credit Europe: We cannot remain just "the credit card bank". We are pursuing Internet and mobile banking
The bank will move towards smartphones and Internet - this is
the future bet of Omer Tetik, appointed at the helm of Credit
Europe Bank, a medium-sized player controlled by Turkish
billionaire Husnu Ozyvegin, last autumn.
Credit Europe, formerly Finansbank, is most often associated with
its credit card with interest-free instalments and a bonus for use
- CardAvantaj, launched as far back as the early 2000s, which made
the bank leader on this segment, although in terms of overall
assets it is not a top player.
After seeing fast growth in the boom years, and exceeding the one
billion-euro mark by assets, the Turks have been among the first to
resort to cuts when the crisis came, cutting around a third of its
employees and branches. Having a flexible organisational structure,
the Turks are now seeking a new niche.
"CardAvantaj remains an important product, but it needs to be
developed. We don't want to remain just 'the credit card bank", we
want to develop our business on the Internet and on phone banking,"
Tetik, 37, told ZF in an interview. The Turkish bank has in the
past few years kept its position as leader of the bank cards
market, with a portfolio of 325,000 cards. Over the past few years
the card portfolio has stagnated, but for this year the target is
360,000 units.