Fresh loans!

Fresh loans!

ING Bank Turkey and leading retail company Migros Group have put their signature on a brand new partnership with the launch of a new general purpose loan, packaged in a look-a-like milk bottle.

The loan, Taze Kredi, which is Turkish for ‘fresh loan’, is assessable in 75 Migros supermarkets across Turkey.

Taze Kredi consists of three different types of loans: Turkish Lira (TL) 3000 (EUR 1,280),
TL 6000 (EUR 2,560) and TL 9000 (EUR 3,840) with three term options: 24, 36 and 48 months.

Milk bottles

How does it work? Customers who are interested in applying for a loan select one of the three milk bottle packages that contains a loan that best suits their needs. Inside the package is a card with a code. The customer applies for the loan by sending the code to ING Bank via a SMS message. Upon receipt of the code, the ING Bank call centre calls the customer and verifies his or her application.

The customer then proceeds to fill in a form which is available at the ING Bank stand in the Migros stores. Once the forms are complete and the stand sales staff verify the customer’s details, the Taze Kredi application is complete.

With this partnership, customers can complete the procedure for loans up to EUR 3,840 (TL 9,000) outside working hours, at weekends, official holidays and feasts at Migros retail stores at no expense, in a quick and easy way.

Mustafa Bartın, director of Information Technologies and Business Development of Migros Group said: “We gave the loans the shape of a milk bottle, because we want to stress that this product reaches customers easily and to emphasise it is an innovative product.”

Alternative distribution

Cenk Tabakoğlu, executive vice president responsible for Saving Products, Payment Systems, Business Partnerships and Exclusive Banking of ING Bank Turkey said: “It is our basic target to be close and accessible to customers. We can realise this by extending our services outside the bank branches and offering practical, easy banking products and services to our customers.”

He continues: “Our cooperation with Migros is an extension of this strategy and a new business model in the sector.” The number of loan applications made through alternative distribution channels increased considerably especially in 2012. Tabakoğlu said that ING Bank achieved above sector growth in general purpose loans, thanks to the bank’s extra-ordinary strategies.