Hundreds of Sampo Bank clients considering changing banks

Nordea and OP-Pohjola Group have been contacted by hundreds of Sampo Bank customers who have shown an interest in taking their financial affairs to Sampo’s closest competitors.
      Towards the end of last week and the beginning of this week there were signs of what could be called scurrying to switch one’s money matters from one bank to another, as Sampo’s clients finally got fed up with the bank’s on-line banking, money transfer, and data security problems, which have now continued for over a week.
      The integration of Sampo’s Internet banking services with its new Danish parent company Danske Bank was still not completed on Wednesday.
     
According to Erkki Böös, Senior Executive Vice President at OP-Pohjola Group Central Cooperative, OP-Pohjola has received at least a hundred calls a day from clients who say they want to change banks because of the problems with Sampo Bank’s services.
      “We get new clients all the time, but last week their number was a couple of hundred above average. The acute stir continues, so it will take at least a month before we can confirm how high a peak we actually had here”, Böös explains.
      According to Böös the “stir” started already when Sampo Bank informed about disruptions to its services over the Easter period, owing to the integration process with the Danske Bank.
     
Hundreds of Sampo customers have also contacted Nordea while looking to change banks, confirms Jussi Mekkonen, director of the household customers' unit for Nordea.
      “Switching between banks takes time if the customer has several accounts, a bank loan, and insurance policies. It is far too early to start estimating how many will finally become our clients. Time will tell”, Mekkonen says.
      Sampo Bank head of communications Hannu Vuola admits that the problems that continued throughout last week have taken their toll on the bank’s clientele.
      “We have received information from our branches of individual cases, but at present no compiled statistics are available”, Vuola comments.
      According to Vuola, what has vexed people most was the stalling of the Internet banking services and the consequent difficulties, for example with paying bills online.
      Sampo Bank has not drawn up any estimates of how many of its clients may switch to its competitors because of the problems, Vuola says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Sampo Bank online problems continue (27.3.2008)
  Serious problems with launch of new online service of Sampo Bank (26.3.2008)
  Finnish Sampo Bank Group to be sold to Danish Danske Bank for EUR 4.05 billion (9.11.2006)
  Sampo Bank struggles throughout weekend to fix computer problems (31.3.2008)
  Sampo Bank CEO apologises for electronic glitches (28.3.2008)