Orange Bank boasts on its first anniversary of activity in Spain of adding more assets than liabilities. Specifically, it has 150 million euros in loans, while its deposits stand at 90 million euros.
This situation does not cause concern to the company since “a margin is generated in assets, while in liabilities a scenario of low rates is estimated in the medium term,” as Narciso Perales, CEO of Orange Bank Spain, has indicated.
The same manager has pointed out that Orange Bank plans to open its services to all clients by the end of 2021, not only restricted to telecom subscribers, as is currently the case. In the same period, the entity will also incorporate the payroll direct debit service, while mortgages will have to wait at least a couple of years.
As Perales recalled in a telematic press conference, the entity started just a year ago with its own checking account, along with free transfers, without commissions or permanence, with a remuneration of the savings of 1%, with the possibility of making payments mobile phones both with your own card and with payment applications such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay, among other features.
The same sources have added that the first bank of a Spanish telecom company launched the financing of devices, cross promotions and compatibility with the Bizum platform for payments through the smartphone from the first moment.
The CEO of Orange Bank has also recalled that the entity issues credit and debit cards -including mobile phones-, with the advantage that the tool does not make the codes visible every time a payment is made. He has also pointed out that the evaluation of the Orange Bank application reaches 4.9 out of 5, both on iOS and Android, one of the best considered in the sector.
The online entity will include the Bizum service next January and shortly after it will admit direct debits, while mortgages will have to wait two years.
In his presentation, Perales congratulated himself on the synergies promoted between the financial world and the telco, in aspects such as the improvement of customer satisfaction, the provision of value-added services, the new additional sources of income, the promotion of innovation, optimization of risk management and increased trust among users.
Orange Bank’s technology, completely designed and produced in Spain, is 100% hosted on cloud servers located in Europe. In addition, it has all the infrastructure as a code, which allows profitability levels of 99.9, according to the manager.
The bank currently has a staff of one hundred people, with telecommunications, banking and digital startup profiles, “all of them digital professionals.”
The bank’s goal for 2021 is to “become more Orange Bank” and double the number of users, to 125,000 customers, compared to the previous 60,000 (of which 2,000 of them are Orange Spain employees). The entity also intends to double the financing of devices and the launch of consumer financing products.
On the horizon of ten years, Orange Bank hopes to reach one million users, as indicated twelve months ago, as well as to reach profitability in five years. On the contrary, the direct debit of payroll will not wait, since it is expected for 2021.
