Don't make me move!

Many believe that the title of a book is the most important part of the first page. But the subtitle is even more important than the title itself.

For example, my title "Don't make me move!" doesn't say much about digital banking. Brett King's four years old title Bank 4.0 it's not explanatory, but the subtitle "Banking Everywhere, Never at a Bank" captures the full picture.

Following the same train of thought, a good subtitle for the 2023 edition of the Digital Banking Scorecard could be "Don't make me visit your branch for basic banking services, or you'll lose me as a client!"

And after the Pandemic, I've seen that the top 10 digital banks in Romania (the ones presented in the report) did a great job in developing remote banking propositions, at least for opening accounts and getting consumer loans.

All the traditional banks from our analysis delight customers with fully online consumer loans. And 9 out of 10 allow clients to open accounts from their sofas without visiting a physical branch.

But what about closing a relationship with a bank? It seems that it's not as easy to divorce after marrying a bank.

7 out of 10 traditional banks don't permit closing your current account from the comfort of your house. You have to move to your allocated branch (hopefully, you'll know which that is when you open your online account) to confirm the break-up

5 out of 10 traditional banks don't offer the option to cancel your card from the mobile app. You can suspend it or freeze it, but cancel it, you have to visit the branch and sign some papers.

That's why remote banking in Romania is incomplete, and you must remember where your branch is located.