About
Finances are personal, so is George: simple, intelligent and personal banking that you can trust and call by name.
Innovation presentation
George is the new digital banking platform by Erste Bank and Sparkassen (Savings Banks) in Austria.
The digital revolution has lastingly changed many sectors. Now it is reaching banking as well. New payment functions, money transfers over social networks or financial services in the form of apps not only change one's personal financial life, but also represent an enormous challenge to the classical retail banks. Banks must react, but how?
Therefore, Erste Bank und Sparkassen are pursuing a vision: to make life easier with intelligent and adaptable technologies and to make financial services not only simpler, faster and less complicated, but to imbue them at the same time with a personality. Our answer to fast changing digital markets has a name: George.
George isn't just online banking with a polished-up user interface. George is to be understood as a system that thinks for itself and continually grows, an intelligent and flexible banking personality, which adjusts to its customers with elements that can be individually combined. George is absolutely unique in the Austrian market. In terms of design and usability we no longer lag in any way behind the internet giants.
George’s vision is to be an ecosystem for custom-made solution to improve all aspects of the financial life of our customers. Therefore, the ability to build your own personal George by adding smart personal plug-ins is essentially innovative.
By mid-July we have onboarded almost 300.000 users in Austria.
Uniqueness of the project
In 2012 we founded the Erste Hub: A strategically thinking AND quickly deploying think tank, playground, laboratory and manufactory at the same time. George was created in this lab. The culture of innovation that we embody is overcoming traditional banking’s passion for silo thinking by brains from many different backgrounds. We are designers, thinkers, developers, writers, doers, sellers, testers and relievers – bankers and anything but bankers.
George's main ability is to process and present data in a manner that allows one to see one's finances like never before.
One can augment one's own digital banking via a plug-in store. These additional services are continually expanded. The George + plug in store is unique to our solution. It allows our customers to get exciting comfort features for George with a certain plus. By buying individual plugins, the customer is enabled to enhance his/her financial life even more.
An g(e)orgeous interface and a human language complete the personality of the only banking that you can call by name: George.
What is new in the Austrian market: bank customers help with the design of products and actively contribute information about their experiences and habits.
