Ömer Tetik, BT’s CEO, was recently invited by Jan Thomson, co‑host of the podcast Mullets & money: An Eastern European Equities Podcast, to talk about fintech and technology, similarities between the Romanian market and other markets, recommendations for businesspeople considering Romania, BT’s growth in the period ahead, and the tax on banks’ assets.

Ömer Tetik has more than 20 years of banking experience in Romania, Russia and Turkey. People who know him personally will tell you he is sociable, open and ambitious, so a podcast with Banca Transilvania’s CEO is no surprise. The interview is in English, but we’ve pulled out the key takeaways:

• Fintech & technology: Romanians are very open to everything new in this space and want the technology they see in London to be available in Romania as soon as possible. BT’s ambition is to be an early adopter in fintech so we can offer our customers efficiency and speed through technology. With this in mind, last year we launched Romania’s first bank‑issued wallet, BT Pay, as well as BT Store, an online platform offering non‑banking solutions for SMEs in HR, healthcare, accounting and finance, consulting, e‑commerce, etc. We are continuing our digital journey in 2019 and preparing to launch a new online banking service with many new features.

• Similarities between the Romanian market and other markets: The perception of banks is broadly similar around the world: as an industry, banking isn’t a particularly loved one. There are strong similarities between Turkey’s and Romania’s SME products, especially in credit cards and microfinance. Culturally, Romanians are close to Turks in that they are very eager to obtain a banking product and are more likely to listen to what the salesperson says than to read the bank’s documents.

• Recommendations for businesspeople planning to move to Romania: It’s a very good business environment; be careful to find good partners from the outset (clients, employees, shareholders) and follow up, because delivery deadlines are sometimes missed.

• Future bank acquisitions by BT: For the time being we are not looking at other markets; we want to consolidate what we have in Romania and the Republic of Moldova.

• Additional tax on bank assets: There has been progress in the dialogue and discussions in recent weeks on the additional tax on banks’ assets. We do not expect it to be adopted in its initial form; it may end up closer to what exists now in Poland and Hungary.