Romanian lender Banca Comerciala Romana attracted over RON 70 million (or some EUR 16 million ) from its customers via phone banking in the first half of 2012. The service offers the costumers the opportunity to make transactions by telephone for the products with a set short-term fixed rate (up to 3 months), over 80 percent of deposits were opened in RON.

The average total value of deposits made via phone banking is of RON 31,500 (or some EUR 7,100).

Among the operations preferred by clients are setting up deposits, followed by opening savings accounts, as well as the purchase of discount certificates of deposit. Moreover, customers can then fill deposits by phone, both those in RON and foreign currencies.

Customers who open deposits with fixed interest rate in RON, EUR or USD, through the phone banking 'Alo 24 Banking BCR' get an interest rate of 0.25 percentage points higher than the standard or promotional offer available at the bank counters.

BCR, part of Erste Group, is the biggest bank in Romania based on assets, which value over EUR 16 billion.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com

(photo source: sxc.hu)