NEWS | Wednesday, 26 September 2007

Volksbank guarantees fast international payments

Following the publication of the group results of Volksbanken AG for the first half-year 2007, Volksbank Malta has now published details about its extended international network.
“Volksbank Malta is a fully licensed Maltese commercial bank,” Managing Director Herbert Skok explained. “But the Bank is also part of a vast European network, which according to our latest figures has now 863 branches and outlets in 14 European countries.”
Parent Company Volksbank AG in Austria currently has 405 outlets, followed by 105 branches in Romania and almost 50 branches each in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The network further covers Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and the Ukraine, where Volksbank has branches in all major cities. In addition to this, Volksbank has also 2 branches in Switzerland, one branch in Liechtenstein and a representative office in Italy. ”And Volksbank Malta also intends to bring up the total number of branches,” Skok continued. “We are currently looking for a good location for an office in Gozo.”
Being a member of such an extended network offers the bank’s clients and especially the Maltese business community a number of advantages.
“Volksbank does not route payments through international financial centres, we are sending payments to our sister banks directly through the network, which saves time and costs for our clients”, Skok said. “We guarantee payments to Volksbank within 24 hours, and obviously the costs are much lower than transfers routed through other banks.”