ING Bank Śląski fighting loans corner with lower fees

The president of ING Bank Śląski (ING BSK) Brunon Bartkiewicz has announced the bank's new strategy. Although the bank has posted a profit of zł.144 million in the first six months of this year as compared with zł.9.7 million a year ago, it began to lose its grip on the loans sector, falling from a 3.78% market share at the end of 2003 to 3.36% in June 2004. The new measures are aimed at redeeming the situation. "We will separate the corporate and retail operations starting from product development right through to the sales network," revealed Bartkiewicz, adding that this will allow them to react quickly to changing market situations. He said that the bank plans to make its products more attractive. In order to do that ING BSK has lowered the fees for basic transactions and ceased to make the interest dependent on the value of the deposit. The bank intends to promote telephone and internet banking and develop its mortgage services. (Puls Biznesu, pp.1,8-9) E.B.