New Bank on the Czech Scene: Partners Bank Ready for Launch in March

A new bank is in the final stages of preparation before going live, and it could soon be offering mortgages.

Partners Bank received its license from the Czech National Bank in August, and its backers expect to launch publicly in March.

Initially, it will offer the basic services of payments, but within a year, it expects to be able to offer mortgages and loans too.

Within ten years, they hope to have half a million clients.

In a statement, the Director of the Partners Financial Group, Petr Borkovec, said the aim is to offer clients a complete financial service.

“We see the launch of the bank as entering a new financial league. We will offer our clients a perfect financial service. Thanks to licenses, data, and technology, it will connect their entire financial life in one app, which will give them full and immediate control over their finances, enable them to live a healthy financial life, and ensure the growth of their wealth.”

The Partners Group has operated in the Czech financial advisory space for 15 years.

According to seznamzpravy.cz, Partners’ app allows clients to choose advisory services already. Later, it will be expanded to include all the banking services too.

But it’s not just Partners’-specific products available in the app; it’s also those of its competitors, though Borkovec doesn’t see this as a conflict of interest, except in the case of mortgages.

“The only area where there is a real clash is mortgages. But in the volume in which we are able to provide them, it is completely ridiculous,” he told seznamzpravy.cz.

He went on to say the intention is not necessarily to compete in the mortgage market because they will be unable to match the rates of the bigger players such as Česká spořitelna. Instead, they will focus on the people more often sidelined by the big providers or those finding it difficult to obtain a mortgage, including entrepreneurs who might find it difficult to prove their income.

Personally, I came across Partners about a decade ago when I was looking for personal financing advice. They seem to have built a very big network of advisors from various industries, allowing those advisors to become franchisees. In the past, they used to cooperate with UniCredit, meaning those who franchised the name could even have run their own mini UniCredit branch.

The step of opening a bank is quite a logical one in my opinion. A few years ago, they opened their insurance company (Simplea), and opening a bank was the next big step, which took them years to finish… It seems like they are close to the end of the painful process of opening a bank. I wish them good luck!”