Courting Poland's affluent earners

Multibank, part of the BRE Bank capital group, wants to make use of the growing number of richer clients in Poland.

According to BPS Consultants Poland and McKinsey & Company, the so-called mass-affluent segment in Poland includes those earning at least zł.5,000 per month, and is estimated at between 360,000 and 500,000 people. It is growing at a rate of four to five percent annually.

"By 2010 we want to be the number-one bank for personal banking and the number-three bank in the mass-affluent segment," Multibank's director, Piotr Kociołek, declared. He estimates the bank's current market share in the segment is seven percent, which he expects to rise to 20 percent in four years. "We want to increase the number of rich clients fourfold," Kociołek said. Currently the bank has 45,000 clients in the mass-affluent segment, which it hopes to raise to 160,000 by 2010.

The bank wants to attract clients with innovative products, and especially through competent and personalized services, which the director sees as Multibank's key advantage over other banks. Kociołek stresses the importance of small companies in the bank's strategy. "A third of our prestigious individual clients have Business Club products," he said. He also said that in the last 12 months nearly 40 percent of SMEs made investments using their own funds only, and just 16 percent took a loan for investments. "This shows that there is a lot of growth potential in the segment," Kociołek said.