Oschadbank (Kyiv) plans to reduce the number of branches from 2,400 to 1,800-2,000 next year and update the remaining ones as part of the continued optimization of the network of branches of the financial institution. “We now have 2,400 branches. According to the plan, about 1,800-2,000 should remain. At the same time, we emphasize that all financial services will be available to customers throughout Ukraine,” Apine Baiba, the head of the supervisory board of Oschadbank, said in an interview with FinClub.
According to her, Oschadbank has already begun optimizing the network by updating more than 650 branches. At the same time, according to the old model, about 1,800 branches are still operating.
“Next year we need to make a choice: reformat them to a new business model or reduce them. And we cannot delay this process, because it affects the bank’s performance,” she said.
She clarified that the financial institution’s specialists are also working on transferring services from the branches to an online mode.
Oschadbank was founded in 1991. Its sole owner is the state.
Oschadbank ranked second among 76 banks operating in the country on October 1, 2019 in terms of total assets (UAH 274.609 billion), according to the National Bank of Ukraine.
Nova Poshta group of companies since the beginning of 2019 has increased the number of branches in the network by 1,200, or 42.9%, to 4,000, the group has said. “The main “shtick” of the network is that its offices open in villages and small settlements,” Oleksandr Bulba, the director of Nova Poshta, said.
He added that the network is also growing by providing opportunities for local entrepreneurs to open points directly in their stores.
According to the report, since the beginning of the year, more than 8 million customers used the services of the group, about 100 million parcels were delivered, whereas in the first half of 2018 Nova Poshta reported on 78 million shipments. Taking into account these figures, the growth was 28.2% compared with 21% in the first half of 2018.
According to the report, Ukrainians more actively order goods abroad: the number of parcels from the United States ordered using the NP Shopping service increased by 20%, from the UK by 86%, and tripled from Poland.
The report also notes that in the first half of 2019, the innovative terminal in Kyiv handled almost 46 million parcels, which is 34% more than in the same period last year. Khmelnytsky Innovative Terminal, launched on May 17, 2019, processed 6.8 million shipments, the release said.
