Deutsche Postbank AG today launched an additional sales channel with the newly founded Postbank Finanzberatung AG. With around 5,000 mobile advisors, the new venture has one of the largest finance sales networks in Germany. The new sales channel will be used to round off the Company’s over-the-counter sales network, which comprises 850 Postbank office branches along with Deutsche Post branches. The new company combines the BHW Group’s field service, consisting of around 4,200 financial advisors, and the 500 advisors employed in Postbank’s investment advice services. A further 100 mortgage advisors are also employed.
Postbank’s specialist financial advisors offer their customers an end-to-end service offering focusing on mortgage lending, home savings, funds, insurance services along with checking accounts and private loans. In addition to products of the Postbank Group, the company will offer the best third-party offerings in a “Best-Select” category. The BHW brand covers the product fields of home savings, mortgage financing and real estate brokerage.
The financial sales organization is represented throughout Germany in more than 800 service centers, which have also been transferred from BHW Bausparkasse to the new company. Postbank Finanzberatung AG is headquartered in Bonn. The Chairman of the Management Board, Dr. Wolfgang Klein, is also the member of Postbank’s Management Board responsible for Retail Banking. Gerhard Borchers, Guido Lohmann and Dr. Andreas Wohllebe also serve on the committee.
Significant increase in earnings per customer expected
Wolfgang Klein is convinced Postbank’s new financial advisory service will be a success: “We are combining Postbank’s enormous customer pool with the advisory expertise of the mobile sales team. This will result in major benefits for customers, advisors and the Company itself.” Postbank currently has 14.5 million customers. The financial advisors will now be able to focus significantly more strongly on providing support and advice, as they will have to invest less in new customer acquisitions than other mobile sales operators.
Postbank expects to generate a further significant increase in average earnings per customer through the new sales outlet and the reinforcement of its product portfolio. Wolfgang Klein: “We can now offer customers an additional, totally new form of access to our products. And for the first time we can also offer our advisory services at home. In light of the variety of pensions products and the disclosure requirements relating to such products, this is becoming increasingly desirable.” Postbank is thus the first retail customer bank in Germany to operate this kind of large-scale, internal mobile sales structure.
