Five banks join the partnership between RBS Romania and Vodafone for the payment of mobile telephony bills by inter-bank direct debit
RBS and Vodafone announce the extension of their partnership providing inter-bank direct debit service for the payment of mobile phone bills. Thus, after the announcement early last year of the first agreement with Millennium Bank, RBS Romania has concluded similar partnerships with four other banks throughout 2011. Therefore, the service became available also for the Vodafone customers who have current accounts opened with Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, OTP Bank, Bank Leumi Romania and Alpha Bank.

The Vodafone customers can activate the new inter-bank direct debit service by signing a mandate authorising the bank where they have a current account to transfer the equivalent value of the monthly bill from their personal accounts to the Vodafone account opened with RBS Romania. This service does not require any additional cost for the Vodafone customers. Once activated, the payment of the Vodafone bill will be made monthly, without any need for further instructions from the client.

“RBS Romania is a promoter of electronic payments in general and of direct debit payments in particular. The signing of the new four partnership agreements with Intesa Sanpaolo, Bank Leumi Romania, OTP Bank and Alpha Bank represents a continuation of the project initiated to encourage inter-bank direct debit payments on the Romanian market”, said Mircea Spinei, Head of Global Transaction Services, RBS Romania.

The direct debit is an efficient and very practical payment method for customers, who are no longer obliged to go to the bank or to the cashier’s office to pay their bills. In addition to the time saved, customers also have the guarantee that their invoices are paid monthly from the funds available in their accounts, thus avoiding delays in payments and possible penalties.

RBS Romania – In Romania, the bank has been present since November 1995. Currently, it services corporate and retail clients in its locations situated in Bucharest, Arad, Braşov, Bacău, Cluj, Constanţa, Craiova, Galaţi, Iaşi, Oradea, Piteşti, Ploieşti, Sibiu, Târgu-Mureş and Timişoara. The Royal Preferred Banking clients are serviced through the four dedicated lounges located in Bucharest (World Trade Center, Unirea and Lakeview) and Constanţa.

Vodafone Romania, a division of Vodafone Group Plc., had 8,596,375 customers as of 30 September 2011. Vodafone is the world's largest mobile communications company, with 391 million customers worldwide, as of 30 September 2011. Vodafone has divisions in 30 countries across five continents and over 40 partner networks worldwide.