Eleni Skoura, ING Bank: Romanian banking is more advanced than we realise

The transformation of the Romanian banking system over the last few decades is one of the clearest examples of the country’s broader growth and modernisation. Rapid technological advancements, the development of economic sectors, and rising living standards have all had a positive impact on our lives. BR took the opportunity to talk to Eleni Skoura, Deputy CEO & Head of Retail Banking at ING Bank Romania, a seasoned banker with over 20 years of experience who has seen the Romanian banking system’s development from an early stage, to reflect on past milestones and share insights into the road ahead.

It has been an amazing journey. I have over 20 years of experience—although less than that in Romania. I came from Greece, a market that was considered quite advanced in retail banking, and arrived in Romania, a country that was just starting its journey in this area. It was a like a two-speed market: on one hand, some practices were more old-fashioned than in Greece, but on the other, it was quick to adopt the latest technologies. Twenty years ago, retail banking—and banking in general—was completely different. You had to go to a branch and sit down with a bank officer to conduct any business. But things soon changed; in Romania, Home’Bank was launched in 2006. I was working at Piraeus Bank at the time and I had opened an account at ING to keep an eye on the competition. I then got an email from ING telling me that they were looking for people who wanted to be bankers (“Căutam bankeri”)—they were talking about people who would want to use Home’Bank and manage operations themselves! Since then, banking has become increasingly digital, and I think ING’s Home’Bank played an important role in the change—including by building trust in digital banking.

Going digital was educational for customers as they were able to begin handling transactions themselves. Today, everything is mobile. In Romania, we are proud to say that we have the most digital customers on the market, and we feel a strong responsibility to meet their expectations. Over 90% of our digital clients use Home’Bank only from their mobile devices, not from laptops or desktops. In fact, we are now developing processes that are mobile-only. Not long ago we had a “mobile first” approach, where we would roll out features on mobile before desktop. But now it’s exclusively mobile, because customers are no longer using fixed computers. This shift is likely a result of the fact that Romania has excellent mobile internet and widespread smartphone adoption.

What have been some of the highlights of your career so far?

I came here as an expat. Back then, it wasn’t very easy for a Greek banker to break barriers and move to another bank. But I was inspired by the career of Omer Tetik, and so I thought, why not me as well? (laughs). A big milestone for me was leaving Piraeus, as I stopped being a “Greek banker” in a bank of Greek origin in Romania, and I joined other companies. I went to BCR and Erste Bank, which was a huge change. That’s when I finally felt like a local and realised I can be part of the local banking experts community, not just an expat. Afterwards I moved to ING.

A moment of great importance and pride for me in my career was a year and a half ago, when we became the first bank to integrate real-time data from the Population Records (Evidenta Populatiei), making the process much faster and more secure. It was a moment of enormous pride because we had a team here that worked tirelessly, through summer days and nights, to make it happen. I feel lucky to have connected my career to such a key moment for the Romanian market. Moments like these make all of us in retail banking in Romania proud. There is also great openness from government agencies like ANAF. When I speak with colleagues from Italy, Poland, Belgium or the Netherlands and tell them that here we have real-time access to data from the fiscal authorities, credit bureau, and population records, they are really impressed. We’re a very advanced market and we don’t even realise it. I’m proud to work in this market, and I can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve next.

How is ING navigating these digital changes? The trend today in banking, and beyond, is for big players to turn into technology companies.

Yes and we are a technology company today. The trend is proven by the scale of investments banks are making in technology for years now. Banking is no longer about paper and ink and a few “IT people”—we are all bank-tech professionals now. I’ve found myself spending more time meeting with IT than discussing prices and financials. But I consider myself lucky to work this way and be part of a bank that operates to a large extent as a fintech.

It is in ING’s DNA to be very open and innovative. We are a major bank and therefore have a lot of responsibility, and we are also highly regulated. We cannot always be the first to launch something new, but we are definitely working under this digital paradigm. Generative AI is an area we’ve been exploring for the last few years, and at ING Bank Romania, we started a live pilot this February. In the past, companies used traditional AI chatbots to communicate with customers, but it often wasn’t a great experience, so we didn’t invest in that at all. We leapfrogged in investing directly in Generative AI chatbot technology, running currently pilot projects with 200 customers per day, whom we call afterwards to ask about their experience. Interestingly, customers are very willing to share their thoughts and help us improve the service.

I’m really excited about what we’re doing now, and there are many new things planned for the near future—but I’m not quite ready to share them just yet.

What do you think about neobanks, the fully digital banks?

Well, what is a neobank? It’s essentially a digital bank, just like we are today. We also have the legacy of technology developed over the years. Neobanks are like the new kids on the block, coming in without any legacy baggage. At the end of the day, they’re essentially fintechs that are adopting the latest technologies while also complying with banking regulations and do not invest in any physical network. And that’s good—competition is healthy. But we were a technology company before this; we were a neobank before neobanks even existed. What was Home’Bank, if not a neobank? Of course, we’re still learning, and competition keeps us sharp.

Well, everything is digital today, and what used to be considered a fintech service is now a standard bank service—like Instant Payments.

Yes, Instant Pay is the standard now. I was just talking with colleagues from the Netherlands, and they were asking how many days it takes to have a mortgage approved here. And I said: you can get it on the same day, even in a few minutes. If the customer provides everything needed, including collaterals and evaluations, theoretically they can get the money in less than 24 hours assuming that you can accommodate the evaluator’s visit same day. This is not yet possible in the Netherlands.

What about AI?

I am pro-GenAI; personally, I use it a lot, and we are integrating it into various processes at the bank. I think we’re lucky to be able to work with Gen AI from the beginning and explore its potential. Definitely the paradigm of how we are working will change and I am very excited to see what the future holds for us. This is happening in our ERA and we need to be cautious, but we are not allowed to ignore it.

You have a strategy focused on products and services designed for families. How do you see it evolving in the coming years?

ING Bank’s innovative DNA has driven us in recent years to launch products that address previously unmet needs in banking. It is part of ING’s strategy to evolve towards “family banking” through ING Together value proposition. It’s for anyone who wishes to share expenses and experiences with friends or share accounts with others, who wants to share our ecosystem with their kids or their parents. ING Together concept aims at creating financial connections between our clients. In the first 3 months after the launch of ING Together account for shared expenses we signed up 50,000 clients. What we loved about it was seeing all age groups involved—including pensioners and younger retirees, some of whom opened account for shared expenses for saving money with their friends for things like fishing trips! Or young couples and students sharing apartments. We offered them a new way of banking, and we’re very proud of that. We will continue to launch new products and services for our customers. ING Young, a product very close to my heart, gave parents with children over the age of 10 the opportunity to help them understand the importance of financial education and autonomy from an early age.

Last but not least, I’d like to highlight the most recent feature launched as part of Home’Bank: payment via a QR code generated by the payment recipient. This is a first step in the implementation of the RoPay service, which I personally believe will be the next innovation in Romania’s banking system to serve all Romanians.

Eleni Skoura, whose motto is “Cool head, warm heart, active hands,” joined ING Bank in August 2021, where she leads over 1,000 people and coordinates all activities, products, and services that meet the needs of individual customers. She has over 20 years of experience in retail banking, gained in both Greece and Romania. Eleni has a deep understanding of the Romanian retail banking market and extensive expertise in digital transformation and product development.

Throughout her career, Eleni has led various divisions at Piraeus Bank, Garanti Bank, and BCR Erste. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a specialisation in Marketing Management from the American College of Greece (Deree College) and she is an HBS alumna having completed the Advanced Management Program of HBS in Boston, US.

Originally from Greece, Eleni has been living in Romania for over 15  years, during which time she has become familiar with the local culture and has become a speaker of Romanian.