OTP Bank: Introducing SSMS for PIN delivery

Challenge

OTP Bank Serbia was looking for a partner to support its PIN delivery process automation and client acquisition. The solution needed to not only automate the process, but also be mobile-centric and user-friendly to seamlessly serve the demands of modern clients, and be certified in line with global banking data protection standards and certificates.

Most young people are not affluent, live on a relatively small budget and typically use cash for daily transactions which makes them fail to see the purpose of banks. Traditionally, banks offered services built around the affluent segment of clients, employed or retired people who have no issues with monthly fees for banking products and services. It’s been like that for a while. Now, banks are working hard to cater to this younger segment – and the challenge lies in getting a chance to show them the benefits of modern banking services, built around their needs.

Solution

Deployment process

The deployment of the SSMS solution and the associated hardware necessary for proper functioning first needed to be customized to suit the particular requirements of OTP Bank and the regulatory framework in Serbia, where the central bank, National Bank of Serbia, is in charge of generating card PINs for OTP Bank Serbia as well as for many other banks. A direct connection was established with the National Bank of Serbia, and all restrictions were adjusted.

2016 EXIT Festival

The tight deadlines were imposed by the bank’s intent to use SSMS for its EXIT Festival-branded prepaid cards, which gave users and festivalgoer discounts at over 400 stores, including the festival itself, and could be used well after the end of the festival.

EXIT Festival is one of Europe’s most popular summer music festivals, taking place since 2000 and in that period, it was awarded many prestigious awards cementing its place as one of the top attractions on the European festival circuit.

In 2016, the festival broke the attendance record with more 195,000 festivalgoers over the four days of the event.

Result

During the four days of EXIT Festival, OTP Bank Serbia acquired over 3,000 new clients, with less than 100 calls to the bank’s call center reporting issues with card activation. SSMS contributed to the rapid uptake of the card with its near-real time card activation capability and a trendy method very familiar to the festival’s millennial audience. The cards still remain available for sale on gas stations and tobacco shops nationwide.

Future plans

Buoyed by the success of the EXIT Festival co-branded cards, OTP Bank Serbia already replicated this successful formula with prepaid cards co-branded with Serbia’s legendary Red Star Belgrade football club, also powered by Infobip’s SSMS to automate card PIN delivery and card activation. Towards the end of the year, the same project has been successfully launched with another Serbian football icon, Partizan Belgrade.

In addition, following the successful proof of concept on the prepaid cards, OTP Bank Serbia has deployed Infobip’s SSMS solution for PIN delivery and card activation bank-wide in mid-November 2016 to a good reception by the customer base.