Zagreb, 15 May 2019 - At the annual conference of Diners Club International EMEA region franchises, which took place in Split this year, Erste Card Club (ECC) was presented with two awards: the Best Large Franchise 2018 in the EMEA region and the commemorative award to mark the 50th anniversary of Diners Club in Croatia. ECC received the Best Large Franchise award primarily owing to the significant step forward it has made with regard to the digital transformation of business operations and the ability to approve Diners Club cards via an end-to-end digital process. In addition, ECC received the award owing to a substantially higher sales of these cards and volume recorded in 2018.
"Since we want the Diners Club card to be the preferred method of payment in the future, we decided to make a considerable technological breakthrough last year in the digitalisation of our entire operations. The Best Large Franchise 2018 award confirms the quality of our efforts and team and the loyalty of our clients, and proves the success of our digital strategy. The second award, presented at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Diners Club in Croatia, is a great privilege for us, but also a great responsibility", Jurgen de Ruijter commented on the awards.
With the aim of substantially upgrading the end user experience, improving the overall business operations, and making a significant progress in increasing its market share, in 2018 ECC embarked on a comprehensive digitalisation of business processes. As a result, ECC introduced the first fully digital process of approving cards on our market, greatly simplifying the card issuing process and cutting the number of days needed to approve a card. In addition, ECC introduced the ECC Mobile app that offers various functionalities to clients, such as managing monthly instalments. It also began offering the Diners Club RateToGo card, which automatically divides costs of purchases and cash withdrawals into a predetermined number of instalments that can range from 6 to 36.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Diners Club in Croatia, the conference was held in Split and it brought together 150 representatives of franchises from across the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Diane Offereins, Executive VP and President of Payment Services at Discover Financial Services which owns Diners Club International, was also present at the conference that takes place in a different country every year. The Best Large Franchise award is presented to Diners Club International's best franchise in a particular region for the franchise's overall business operations. Before this latest one, Erste Card Club had also received the award for the best EMEA franchise in 1996, 1998 and 2004.
For additional information:
Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d.
51000 Rijeka, Jadranski trg 3a
Corporate Communications
Zagreb, Ivana Lucica 2, e-mail: pr@erstebank.com
Dario Gabric, tel.: +385 (0)72 37 13 71; mob: +385 99 2371 371
Danijela Trbovic, tel.: +385 (0)72 37 15 31; mob: +385 99 2371 531
Sara Zadravec, tel.: + 385 (0)72 37 24 93; mob: +385 99 2372 493