Multibank gets personal with upper-middle-class

The company, established in the 1990s to cater for the then-fledgling middle class, wants to double the number of its clients to one million with an offering tailored specifically to wealthier clients. Although many of its rivals are also eager to tap into this lucrative and growing market, Multibank believes it has a winning formula with a concept borrowed from private banking. "The winner will not be the bank with the largest number of branches, but the one that gets closest to the client," says Jarosław Mastalerz, BRE Bank executive board member for retail banking. Hence the idea of "relationship managers," dedicated employees who choose the right mix of financial products for time-starved clients, based on their specific needs and expectations, in a highly personalized relationship. Multibank also plans to significantly expand its range of financial products, especially those tied to foreign markets, and to make frequent changes to its offering with a wealth of "short series" products available for up to a month. Multibank is also planning to forgo any big advertising campaign, opting instead to rely on word-of mouth marketing. In the eleven months to end-November, Multibank had a net profit of zł.65.7 million, compared to zł.25.9 for all of 2006. (Puls Biznesu, p. 10) R.M.