"The major transformation is being achieved thanks to an additional capital of 33 million euro [$35.4 million], which PPF Group provides to the bank within the ongoing five-year investment cycle. A part of this planned long-term financial support has already been invested in the application and IT infrastructure," Mobi Banka said in a statement earlier this week.
Both, Mobi Banka and mobile operator Yettel Serbia are part of Netherlands-based parent company PPF Group. Yettel and Yettel Bank will continue to operate as two separate companies within PPF Group.
"I am sure that there is no better way to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. [...] By creating synergy between the banking and telecommunications sectors, we have made great potential to expand our business model through exemplary practices," the head of Mobi Banka's executive committee, Aleksandar Bogdanovic, said in the same statement.
The Yettel Bank application will be introduced in three phases, with the first one starting in early June when customers can expect a gradual introduction to some of the new functionalities in the Yettel Bank mobile application while still having access to the existing application, the statement read.
The second phase will start in the summer with only the new Yettel Bank mobile application being available to customers. This phase will include external payments to mobile phone numbers. The final phase will take place by the end of 2024, making the final version of the application available.
"In the last two years, since we have been operating under the Yettel brand, we realized that we share the same vision: to bring innovation to the Serbian market and make the digital world and banking simpler, easier, and more human. Now, we have a mobile service, a fixed segment, with a full portfolio of services for households, a variety of non-telco content in our Yettel app, and Yettel bank," Yettel Serbia CEO Mike Michel said in the same statement.
Mobi Banka also said that with the transformation it plans to expand its current workforce of some 500 employees. Its IT team has grown by over 50% compared to the previous year and is expected to rise further. The bank has some 800,000 clients at present.
In March 2022, PPF Telecom Group renamed to Yettel its mobile operators in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Serbia, which had been grouped under the Telenor name prior to that. PPF Group completed the acquisition of Norway's Telenor Group telecommunications assets in Central and Eastern Europe in 2018.
Also in 2018, Telenor Group agreed to sell 100% of Serbia-based Telenor Banka to PPF Group. Previously, Telenor acquired 100% of KBC Banka in Serbia in 2013 and a year later launched Telenor Banka as the first mobile and online bank in Serbia. In 2019, following the acquisition by PPF Group, the bank changed its name to Mobi Banka.
