Stories of madness from the National Bank: Where is the “new bank” of Mr. Mylonas?
National Bank service: The recent adventure publicized by the journalist Stamatis Zacharos is not just an isolated incident of bad service, but the absolute manifesto of the bureaucratic paranoia that prevails at the National Bank.
The most important conclusions from the journalist’s “Odyssey” are revealing:
Full lack of organization: Cards that are lost without tracking and employees who are unable to communicate with each other, forcing the customer to perform the duties of a… telephone operator.
Digital anachronism: A supposedly online procedure that requires physical presence, appointments after weeks, and archaic methods with handwritten tables for the issuance of a PIN.
The gap with the future: At the time when Revolut issues a card in one and a half minutes, National Bank traps its customers in labyrinthine procedures of the previous century.
Here, however, the big question arises: When will Pavlos Mylonas take his responsibilities? Since 2021, Mr. Mylonas has been pre-announcing the creation of a “new bank,” focusing on voluntary exits and digital transformations on paper.
However, reality contradicts him miserably. While the administration “builds” the future in presentations, the daily madness in the branches remains the same. Mr. Zacharos had the eloquence and patience to record this absurdity. What happens, however, with the thousands of anonymous customers who have no voice? The answer is simple: Disappointment leads to flight en masse towards the competition.
As long as National Bank deals with everything except essential banking and respect for the customer, its future is predicted to be ominous. A bank that is unable to issue a card without bothering the customer for a week is mathematically certain to be heading towards devaluation.
