CFI.co Meets the CEO of Touch Bank: Andrei Kozliar

As CEO of Touch Bank, Andrei Kozliar serves as a chief strategist and visionary-in-residence of Russia’s digital-only retail bank established to meet growing customer demand for simple, honest, and instant banking. Mr Kozliar is a seasoned banker with over seventeen years of experience in classic retail banking and product and risk management. He has a clear vision on the future of the banking industry and the role technology plays in the contemporary struggle for change.

Mr Kozliar started his career at Royal Bank of Scotland in London as risk manager and within several years became the deputy head of risk at Cetelem (UK). For the past decade he held several executive positions at GE Money Bank, Commercial Renaissance Credit Bank in Ukraine, and Svyaznoi Bank in Russia, where he contributed to the establishment and development of a market-driven banking model. Mr Kozliar also served on the board of directors of VisualDNA, a British developer of unique business support technologies. In October 2013, OTP Group’s board of directors invited Mr Kozliar to take charge of its business line in Russia. One year later, Touch Bank was launched.

Set up by the OTP Group, a leader of the financial services industry in Central and Eastern Europe, Touch Bank is an all-digital retail bank and a fin-tech project rolled-out in Russia in 2014. The company operates under the banking license of OTP Bank in Russia, though it functions as a fully independent business with its own IT, strategy, and management teams and a separate financial and legal infrastructure.

“The vision behind creation of Touch Bank was to build a simple, honest, and customer-oriented bank that offers instant access to the full range of financial products and services people need in their everyday life. The bank that gives you an unlimited freedom to manage your personal finances by a few mouse clicks and shape classic banking products, such as credit, in a personalised way that precisely matches needs. Our core value proposition is simplicity. Upon opening an account with Touch Bank, the client receives a single banking card that unlocks a comprehensive suite of self-help products – no visits to the branch office, no additional paper work, and no need to explain why and when you need a loan,” explains Mr Kozliar.

Touch Bank does not have a high street presence with branches or ATMs. The only channels of interaction between the bank and its customers are digital, starting with the online card application process, and continuing to a complete Internet-based banking solution, including a cross-platform mobile application. Thus, Touch Bank customers gain immediate access to all personal-use banking products such as current and deposit accounts, credit card and personal cash loans, POS-purchase redirection to debit/credit cards issued by other banks, and a generous cash-back loyalty programme.

“In just a single year our team managed to build and roll-out a fully operational complex banking product and digital solution that captures the attention of millions and won the hearts of almost two hundred thousand clients now using Touch Bank on daily basis. The success may be attributed to the solid support and technical assistance provided by parent company OTP Group and the devotion of all managements teams, developers, and others at Touch Bank. Their brilliant ideas and hard work shape the future of banking, and not just in Russia. We have big plans.”