By George! Erste Group’s banking platform launches in Slovakia
George, the digital banking platform developed by Austria-based Erste Group’s in-house fintech, has officially launched in Slovakia.
Erste says George has nearly 1.5 million users in Austria, while over 300,000 Czechs are handling their finances with it during its soft launch phase in the country.
The bank says it aims to introduce the platform in all of its seven markets – including Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia.
Peter Bosek, chief retail officer of Erste Group, says its plan 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”.
The platform was built from the ground-up and co-designed with its customers. According to the bank, George offers personalisation. That personalisation applies to how customers can view, sort and organise the information provided about their spending, savings, investments and payment transfers.
Customers can, for example, choose to rename banking products and accounts, drag and drop account components together to create new groups that reflect their own approach to handling finances, and toggle between seeing items in either a list or “card” view, depending on their preference.
George users can personalise their own background graphics, which is “not just about convenience and fun, but also a real security benefit in that it also helps to thwart phishing attempts”.
Users can also choose from a range of plug-ins, via George’s API-based architecture, such as a seven-year account archive, a “Remember2Pay” function for upcoming bills, and “Watchdogs” that alert users when events that they have specified (like a certain payment transfer or share price development) take place.
Erste says there are over 210,000 plug-ins activated by users, meaning George has “developed into a marketplace”.
