More convenient and greener: SEB’s card service is also environmentally friendly

For years already, SEB has kept the Bank’s ecological footprint in mind when developing new services and solutions. Plastic cards also have a role to play alongside paperless service, consultation via video bridge, and IT solutions. SEB’s statistics show that increasingly more clients prefer to order their bank card by mail to their home instead of visiting a bank branch in person. Not only is this more convenient, but it also saves on fuel.

“Years ago, we started the service where we deliver a new bank card to the home of the client by mail, instead of delivering it to a bank branch. In this way, we save both the time of our clients and the bank employees, and also save on fuel since the client no longer has to specifically come to a branch to pick up their bank card. While just over half of all bank cards issued last year, that is, 133,000 out of 261,000, were sent by mail to the homes of clients, the emergency situation has made clients more open to new solutions, and together with accelerated product development, we estimate that the proportion of bank cards sent to homes will increase to 81 per cent in the second quarter,” commented the Head of Customer Analytics and Data Science at SEB Baltics, Lennart Kitt.

The proportion of renewed cards that were sent home was 77 per cent at SEB in the previous year but by today, this figure has already increased to 94 per cent. Updates to the Internet Bank made in last July also had a role to play – these increased the proportion of the cards of first-time private clients that were delivered to the home from 6 per cent in the first half of the year to 39 per cent by the end of the year. Today, the first bank cards of private persons reach them by mail in 76 per cent of cases, already. Since May, we are also offering a similar opportunity to corporate clients.

SEB estimates that as a result of the emergency situation and its aftereffects, the Bank will send up to 211,000 bank cards to the homes of clients during this year. “If we assume that every client travels 20 kilometres to pick up their bank card, then this would amount to up to 105 trips around the globe. Therefore, we can only guess how much time and resources this seemingly simple service will help people save,” said Kitt.

At the same time, Lennart Kitt emphasises that a prerequisite for ordering the bank card to one’s home is constantly and correctly updated client information. “Our clients, who regularly check and update their contact details at the bank, have helped to ensure the reliability and safety of the service, and this certainly deserves recognition,” Kitt added.

Additional info:

Evelin Allas
Communications Manager
Marketing and Communications Division
SEB Pank

Phone: +372 6655 649
Mobile: +371 5111 718
Address: Tornimäe 2, 15010 Tallinn
E-mail: evelin.allas@seb.ee