Gabriela Nistor, Salt Bank: "We set out to have one million customers after three years of operation"

Salt Bank, the first 100% digital Romanian bank that was officially launched yesterday, set out to reach one million customers in three years of operation, Gabriela Nistor, the CEO of the institution belonging to Banca Transilvania, said yesterday.

"By launching Salt, we are not only bringing the first 100% Romanian neobank to the Romanian market, but we are also proposing a unique perspective that combines technology and finance", stated Gabriela Nistor. "Our plans foresee that, in the first year, we will reach 100,000 customers. The interest is very high and it is clear that the Romanians were waiting for something like this. And after three years we set out to reach one million customers. We also want to start in the third - fourth year of operation to be profitable. That's what the plans look like now. We have a pretty solid business case, but we also have to be flexible. We're somewhere between a fintech and a bank, so we have to move and adjust quickly".

According to the CEO of Salt Bank, the institution is considering listing on the stock exchange in a period of several years. "For listing it is necessary to show that you have a time horizon in which to become profitable. We will be able to assess this a bit further down the line depending on how the bank does in the early years. But this is the way we want to go", said Gabriela Nistor.

In terms of investment opportunities, Salt Bank will offer clients the opportunity to subscribe to Fidelis fund units, shares and possibly government bonds. "Our target is the large and medium-sized urban environment, where people want to save but also invest", said Gabriela Nistor, emphasizing that, for now, through the application you can view funds of BT Asset Management. "We are now working on the purchase of fund units and later we want to enter the share side both on the Romanian stock exchange and on foreign stock exchanges. We are also looking at government bonds because we have seen that there is interest from people. The crypto area is not something we are interested in at the moment."

Regarding credit products, the first one that will be available will be the credit for personal needs, which will be launched at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, Gabriela Nistor also stated. In a first phase, the bank addresses only natural persons, later expanding to authorized natural persons and, possibly, to small companies.

According to the bank's press release, customers receive the opportunity at launch to become founders and even shareholders of the bank, if it will be listed on the stock exchange.

Customers also receive an interest of 3% per year on the current account and Spaces, if they make payments of at least 1,000 lei/month. Spaces is a space dedicated to start saving. Customers will also receive a multicurrency card with trading in 17 currencies from around the world.

According to the bank, in less than three weeks, more than 80,000 people signed up on the waiting list to become Salt founders.

Salt Bank, based in our country, is fully owned by Banca Transilvania Financial Group.