According to the information of the “World”, the operator works on a reorganization of Orange Bank to facilitate its international deployment.
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The project is still confidential. Orange has launched in recent weeks a reorganization of its banking activities, has learned Le Monde. With two goals: simplify Orange Bank’s computer system, then deploy the mobile bank in Europe, beyond its current two markets, France and Spain. Orange Bank could thus be grafted to the telecom activities of the operator, Poland, Belgium or Romania. Orange does not comment.
“one bank”, the project code name submitted to the representatives of the Bank’s staff, provides for the merger of Orange Bank France and the Spanish branch open at the end of 2019. Back Office, Computer Science and risk management would thus be shared. This would result in the removal of thirty positions, on the 820s currently the structure, indicates a source. The new computer platform is in the development phase. Thirty millions of euros in savings are hoped for.
Loss accumulations
A new development direction would build on this organization to launch financial services in other European countries, with the hope of managing more net banking products at a marginal cost. “This project must allow Orange Bank to more easily reach the dead point,” ensures a source.
Launched in November 2017 in France, as a result of the 2016 acquisition of Groupama Bank, the mobile bank has always lost money. In five years, Orange Bank has accumulated nearly 800 million euros of net losses, forcing its control shareholder to replace the pot each year. In 2021, Orange subscribed to a capital increase of 300 million euros, which adds to € 637 million brought between 2017 and 2020. The operator hopes that his financial institution will reach the end-2024 operational equilibrium. Which still supposes three years of losses to be mounted.
Orange now has free cubits to launch this project. The operator redeemed, in October 2021, the minority share of 21.7% that Groupama still held. The two partners were no longer on the same wavelength: Orange reproached the heaviness of the Groupama Bank’s inherited computer platform, and the insurer did not want to finance the European ambitions of his partner. Only master on board, the telecom operator hopes to be able to give a new breath to his bank by nickening him a little more with telecom activities, such as the management of his loyalty programs, which is not necessarily well seen by the commercial teams of the operator. This new shareholding will also simplify load transfers between the Orange shop network and the bank, while the bank is supposed to serve as a commercial argument to win or keep telephony customers by offering for example credits to buy a smartphone .
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