The two companies join forces to increase their market share.
Croatian Postal Bank (HPB) and Croatian Post (HP), through the Bank in Post Office project, will create the largest distribution channel of banking and financial services in the country. Banking services will be available to people even in the remotest parts of the country, announced the two companies on Monday, reports Poslovni.hr on December 19, 2016.
“Our idea is to together create the largest joint sales network for financial services in the country. We currently have 183 branches, and next year we will have more to 200 of them, which means that will have the largest network of branches and offices in Croatia”, said CEO of HPB Tomislav Vuić. He added that large part of HPB’s plans, including the growth and increase in market share, was tied to the sales channels which will be enabled by the cooperation with HP.
Vuić also stressed that financial services which are covered by this project would be provided to customers in locations where they were previously not available, and that the project would increase revenues and value of both companies.
Member of the board of directors of HP Josip Udiljak believes that the cooperation with HPB will successfully develop in the coming years as well. He hopes that present and future users of their services will recognize the value of their cooperation.
HP has 1,016 post offices, and it performs about 50 million cash transactions a year. According to Marijana Špalj, who is in charge of HPB’s cooperation with HP, their services are daily requested by about 150,000 users. To all of them, HPB and HP want to make banking services available in the smallest of towns and villages, under the same conditions as in large branches and offices.
She also noted that 2016 was marked by an increase in loans approved. “In order to offer banking services to the highest standards as part of this project, we have held training sessions for more than 500 members of HP staff, and as many as 131 post offices now have staff trained to offer loans”, said Špalj.
Bank in Post Office project was first promoted in 2015, and it has continued this year with the introduction of financial corners in post offices which operate as small bank branches and where it is possible to arrange for a number of traditional banking services.
During the next year, HP offices will also offer the possibility of opening foreign currency accounts and of making foreign currency deposits.
