Salary accounts - bankers' new battlefield

Bankers are now fighting over clients whose money they want to manage, salary included, after back in the summer of 2008 they sent them letters inviting them to take out loans “only by producing an ID” and last year they were too concerned with cleaning up their credit portfolios.
Banks such as Millennium, ING, and RBS, have lately launched salary accounts for which they do not charge any fees on opening, management, and cash withdrawal from ATMs. Other banks have had a policy of attracting clients onto this segment for several years now and say in this way they managed to boost their base of clients, to whom they will later sell other products, as well.
“We never charged maintenance and cash withdrawal fees. The current account was for us the hook whereby we attracted a 1.3 million-client base. As a retail bank, you cannot be successful unless you have a stable client base and you are able to sell diversified products,” says Gabriela Nistor, executive manager for retail at Banca Transilvania.