Embracing the ‘Phygital’ Approach

Eurobank Cyprus' Affluent Banking Unit provides high quality personal banking services to successful local professionals who wish to develop a relationship with a modern and forward-looking bank. Our products and services include housing loans, personal credit facilities and deposit accounts. At the same time, we offer our customers access to a selection of wealth management services through a high-calibre team of experienced financial advisers. Our most important trait, however, is our commitment to relationship management and excellent service, through which we help our clients meet their unique financial needs and aspirations.

Our clients enjoy the personalised services of a dedicated Affluent Relationship Officer, who is a highly skilled and trained professional, capable of providing all-round banking solutions. Our Relationship Officers are located in our eight Banking Centres throughout Cyprus and are available to meet at any time and place that is most convenient for our customers, thus facilitating account opening and credit procedures. At the same time, the solutions offered are unique to each individual client, aiming to satisfy their individual needs and financial aspirations.

One of the main focuses of the Affluent Banking Unit is the provision of property loans, both for the purchase of property for own use as well as for investment purposes. This includes the construction or purchase of a primary or holiday residence, the acquisition of land for the construction of a primary residence as well as for the construction or purchase of a property for investment purposes. Recent years have been challenging, with the economic scene in Europe characterised by high inflation, which led to an unprecedented increase in interest rates. The economic uncertainty caused by the general level of interest rates, high prices of construction materials as well as the geopolitical developments and instability in the region, were a cause of concern both to new and existing customers. Throughout this period, we continued to support new customers who needed financing for the acquisition of their residential home as well as those customers who wanted to take advantage of arising investment opportunities. At the same time, we strove to take initiatives that had a positive impact on customers’ existing housing loans. Examples include the temporary reduction of the Bank’s Housing Base Rate and the launch of a reward program for performing housing loans.

April 2023 was an important milestone for the Bank with the implementation of the new Banking System and successful roll-out of the new technologies. This significant investment is particularly important for our Affluent Banking unit since it enhances our business agility, helps us streamline straight-through processing for on-boarding and loan procedures and reduces our time-to-market for new innovative products and services, thus enabling us to meet the evolving needs of our growing affluent client base.

The Affluent Banking Unit, in line with the rest of the Bank, embraces the “phygital approach”, that is, the seamless integration of physical and digital channels aiming to provide a holistic banking experience to our customers. Our effort is to utilise the opportunities offered by technology, in order to reduce initial on-boarding costs and, more importantly, to improve the service we provide to our customers, whether this is a loan application or an account opening procedure. At the same time, we maintain our personal contact and touch, which are of paramount importance to our affluent banking clientele.

(Photo by Taspho)

By Popi Hadjioannou Demetriou, Head Affluent Banking, Eurobank Cyprus

(This article first appeared in the 2024 edition of The Cyprus Journal of Wealth Management, commissioned by Eurobank Cyprus and published by IMH. Click here to view the article. Click here to view the entire magazine online.)