Digitisation has been part of the road map of Moldova Agroindbank (MAIB) over the past years. Holding the lion’s share of Moldova’s banking market – about 30% in terms of loans, deposits, assets and profit, MAIB has laid a strong emphasis on digitisation so as to improve its clients’ banking experience. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic provided an additional proof of the soundness of the digitisation strategy. With all the needed digital tools in place, the bank entered the pandemic fully prepared to uninterruptedly provide high quality banking services.
MAIB, Moldova’s leading bank, has been applying a wide range of digital banking tools, contributing to a gradual shift in the mindset of its clients. The bank’s clients, who are fully aware of the advantages of MAIB’s first digital application, desktop-based Internet Banking, welcomed the innovations which the bank has been continuously launching on the market over the past years. T2C, P2P, EASI Banking, MAIBank mobile banking application, Cash-in ATMs, foreign exchange at ATMs, Transfer by QR Code, Cash by Code, Cash-in by Code have all queued up to turn MAIB clients’ banking experience into a timesaving, comfortable, quick and safe one.
“Digitisation is no longer a trend. It is a reality that you need to acknowledge. It is everywhere and you won’t be able to keep the pace with the market unless you give it due consideration,” MAIB CEO Serghei Cebotari says. “MAIB was the first bank in Moldova to launch internet banking some 15 years ago. It still offers the best desktop-based application in the country. Yet, the world has shifted to mobile and you need to adjust. Over the past two years, our digital business team has done a tremendous job and today our private clients can do banking easily and safely via MAIB no matter where they are.”
With MAIB, private clients have their bank in their pocket. Transferring money in the blink of an eye, receiving remittances right on card, paying automatically utility bills, opening deposits by several clicks only, generating QR codes to receive money, keeping evidence of their money, and even categorising their spending – these and many others are all about MAIB, the best ranked mobile banking application in the country, according to Google Play.
The safety of digital services has also been among the priorities of MAIB, as it invests in highly reliable safety software and highskilled specialists, as well as in campaigns to inform its clients on how to prevent online banking frauds.
Over the past several months, the coronavirus pandemic put many businesses in the country on a halt. It was not the case for Moldova Agroindbank. Being on good terms with digital services, the bank managed to uninterruptedly service its clients via mobile and other web-based applications. The number of MAIB downloads tripled and the number of transactions made via the application doubled from March through June only. Banking on digital services proved to be the right strategy for both middle and long term.
“It does not mean that we no longer have clients queueing outside our branches for transactions that can actually be carried out online. We do, even in this period, and we do respect them and pay good attention to their needs as well. To get them used with digital services we, for instance, have set highly friendly self-service terminals in MAIB branches, the only ones in the country that allow for card payments, by the way. And yet, digital means future and we tend to be available for our clients on a round the clock basis, to be there whenever they need, to turn their online banking experience into a time-saving and highly reliable one,” Cebotari adds.
MAIB keeps on developing its digital ecosystem, with MAIBusiness being next in the line. The bank’s mobile banking application meant for legal entities, MAIBusiness, has already been launched in a beta mode. And this is far from being the end of the digitisation story.
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Instituted in 1991, MAIB indisputably holds the position of leader of Moldova’s banking sector. Currently, HEIM Partners, an international consortium made up of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Horizon Capital and Invalda INVL, holds 41.09% of its shares. Local shareholders own the other over 58% of shares.