Bankia : Goirigolzarri said, “However much digitization we introduce, customers will demand a personal relationship with their bank”

• 'Customers will want to make the most of the capabilities offered by technology, but they will also want a personal relationship, which will be most valuable when obtaining advice and contracting products', he said.
• The financial system model 'that I believe in, must be profitable in order to provide excellent service to consumers', said Goirigolzarri.
• At the end of 2016, Bankia had the 'highest levels of efficiency, solvency and return on equity' of the major Banks

Bankia's chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, believes that despite the growing digitisation of banking services, personal customer relationships will be fundamental in the future.

In his speech today in Toledo at the events organised by Fedeto (the Toledo Business Federation) to commemorate its 40th anniversary, Goirigolzarri said, 'Customers will want to make the most of the capabilities offered by technology, but they will also want a personal relationship with their bank, which will be most valuable when obtaining advice and contracting products'.

Bankia's latest campaignOpen in a new window makes exactly this point, offering its customers the possibility to select the type of account manager that best suits their needs, either in a traditional branch or digitally.

'However much digitization we introduce, the human teams in our organisations will continue to be fundamental', said Goirigolzarri. 'People will therefore play a key role in differentiating between the good and bad institutions', he added.

Goirigolzarri explained that one of the major challenges that lies ahead for his bank is 'continuing to transform the mind-set of the human team', which will be essential when 'promoting the absolutely necessary cultural transformation to adapt to what the customer demands'.

'And at present we already have multichannel relationships with our customers', he noted.

Growing mobile phone use

In recent years, customers have increasingly decided to use ATMs or the internet to carry out transactional operations. Consequently, today only 10% of these transactions are performed in branches with the remainder carried out via other types of channels. According to Goirigolzarri these include mobile telephones, which now account for 30% of highly standardised transactions.

Goirigolzarri: 'Our central idea, our focus, is the customer. We have to listen to them and serve them'

'Our central idea, our focus, is the customer. We have to listen to them and serve them' emphasised Goirigolzarri, who went on to add that 'our goal at the end of the next three years is for Bankia to be seen by consumers as a close, simple and transparent bank. That is the position that we aspire to'.

The financial system model 'that I believe in, must be profitable in order to provide excellent service to consumers', said Goirigolzarri.

A leader in solvency, efficiency and profitability

Goirigolzarri said that at the end of 2016, Bankia had the 'highest levels of efficiency, solvency and return on equity' of the major banks and 'our goal is to continue to be leaders for efficiency, profitability and solvency in the coming years', because 'excellent service that is sustainable cannot exist if it is not based on outstanding efficiency'.

To achieve this goal, Goirigolzarri said, 'We have two supporting pillars. One is the motivation of our teams and the other is the opportunities that come from digitisation', of which he highlighted 'the search for a radical reduction in the cost of our processes' involving 'their simplification, digitisation and outsourcing'.