George, the digital banking platform developed by Erste Group Bank AG’s in-house fintech, has officially been launched in Slovakia today, building on its success in Austria and growing popularity in the Czech Republic.
George is already meeting the daily banking needs of approximately 2 million users across these markets: in Austria, George has already become the country’s most modern and popular banking platform, with nearly 1.5 million users (or more than every third online banking user in Austria) relying on it, while over 300,000 Czechs are handling their finances via George during its soft launch phase in the country.
Erste Group aims to introduce its unified digital banking platform in all of its seven markets (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia), thus making George the first pan-European banking platform that offers a full range of products and services across all platforms.
Peter Bosek (Chief Retail Officer, Erste Group Bank AG)
Our vision for George was clear from the very beginning: we didn’t want to create yet another internet banking, we didn’t want to simply retrofit old systems. George is an entirely new way of banking, one reimagined for our digital age. We built it as a platform from the ground-up and co-designed it with our customers – and this is what makes George a game-changer that millions of people want to use. We’re excited about bringing it to Slovakia, and very soon to all of our other countries and beyond,” said Peter Bosek, Chief Retail Officer of Erste Group.
Our customers have high expectations: banking with us should be as easy and intuitive as placing an order on Amazon or checking a social media account, but with advanced security and comprehensive protection for customers’ personal data. This is exactly what we’re going for with George: think of it as banking going social, while taking data security and privacy very seriously,” Bosek added.