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Bulgarian Banking Industry Measuring Media Reputation


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Purpose of the study

1 2To evaluate the overall media

reputation of the banking industry in Bulgaria by tracking the appearance of the Bulgarian banks, listed in the top

tier of 2010’s edition of SEE TOP 100, in major traditional and social media

for the period 1 January - 30 June 2011

To research in detail the media profile of each bank covered by the study:

Unicredit Bulbank, Raiffeisenbank, DSK Bank, United Bulgarian Bank, Societe Generale, Postbank, Piraues

Bank and First Investment Bank

To identify major themes and core reputation drivers for the industry as a whole and for each lender separately

To compare and analyse the media attitudes and salient topics in the

traditional and social media

To examine the Net Effect on the lenders’ media image as well as

their Net Promoter Scores, or the probability for recommendation by

their customers

To mark off the media sources mostly engaged with the banks and the

key spokespeople who frequently commented on the industry and the

events which influenced it.

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Banking IndustryKey findings

The banking industry, as well as all the banks under research had good media rep-utation; differences in terms of sentiment were observed mainly in the nuances of the favourable tone in the conventional sources and the share of negative emotions expressed in the social-media sources.

Some 1748 articles in the conventional news and business sources and 616 posts in the social media forged the industry’s im-age; Unicredit Bulbank led the conventional-media coverage in terms of volume, while First Invest-ment Bank was most popular among the social-media users;

Leadership, products and financial perform-ance were the themes in the conventional media which chiefly influenced the banks’ reputation, while their social-media image was predominantly defined on the background of conversations about products and services and the customer services at the banks.

Raiffeisenbank came up as the one with the most positive image in the traditional media thanks to the constant high volume of stories de-voted to it and the very favourable tone towards the bank. The key drivers on its reputation were frequent discussions over findings of its research reports and the expert opinions of top bank repre-sentatives on hot economic and financial matters;

The image leader in the social media was First Investment Bank following its efforts towards utilising the social-media communication channels; it boasted the biggest number of posts with the most favourable emotions of users.

The business daily Dnevnik and the online source Money.bg topped the list of sources which mostly wrote about the sector; Unicredit Bulbank’s executives - Kristofor Pavlov, the Chief Economist, and Levon Hampartsumian, the bank’s CEO – were the sector’s representatives who were most often quoted in the media.

The size of the nested rectangles represents the number of articles mentioning a particular bank in proportion to the total number of articles dis-cussing the banks evaluated for the purpose of this report.

The colour of the nested rectangles represents the overall sentiment expressed in the media toward a particular bank. Green indicates positive senti-ment, red indicates negative sentiment.

Media Image in the Conventional Media

Media Image in the Social Media


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Banking Industry

The Bulgarian banks, listed among the top tier lend-ers in the 2010’s edition of SEE Top 100 ranking, featured in 1748 articles in domestic major news and business sources and 616 comments in the so-cial media for the period 1 January – 30 June 2011. The banks’ financial performance and vital role in the Bulgarian banking industry drove the high me-dia interest.

Unicredit Bulbank and Raiffeisenbank generated the highest number of articles in the conventional media (335 and 276 articles, respectively).

First Investment Bank (FIB) attracted the least amount of attention in the conventional media (137 articles).

However, as a result of the bank’s proactive social-media approach, FIB was the most frequently dis-cussed Bulgarian lender in the online forums and blogs appearing in 143 comments. On the other hand, Societe Generale barely showed up in the social media conversation with just 30 comments.

Outside circle – conventional media Inside circle – social media

Share of Voice


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Banking Industry

Generally, the traditional media out-lets portrayed the Bulgarian banking industry in a positive light (1297 posi-tive articles, 74% of the coverage in the conventional media). The major news and business sources were pre-occupied with gauging the state and outlook of the Bulgarian economy and the banking sector. That is why they closely monitored and hailed the sound fi nancial results posted by the leading banks operating in Bulgaria.

Additionally, the positive tone pre-vailed as the conventional outlets were constantly seeking the expert opinion of top bankers and were scrutinising the banks’ new product and services off erings for insights on where the economy was heading.

The negative news in the conven-tional media usually revolved around the Greek fi nancial collapse and its impact on the Greek parent banks and their Bulgarian divisions.

In comparison to the conventional media, the coverage in the social media had a markedly critical fl avour. The conversation there was focused for the biggest part on the banks’ products and services and the qual-ity of their customer services. The online forum and blog users shared their personal experience with vari-ous products like debit/credit cards and online banking which produced a colourful mix of emotions ranging from great satisfaction to frustration.

Sentiment


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Banking Industry

The conventional media displayed a great interest in the economic outlook of the country and the banking sector, and that seemed to be the basics on which all key themes were covered. As a re-sult, representatives of the major banks in Bulgaria frequently appeared in the media to discuss sali-ent economic events, which made the leadership theme the main reputation driver for the lenders.

Another media-reputation driver was the fi nancial-performance theme, since the traditional sources regularly reported on and analysed the fi nancial re-sults and capital positions of the Bulgarian banks.

Also, the media reviewed all new credit and de-posit products launched on the market in a further attempt to get an insight into the current economic conditions in the country and the prospects for the banking industry.

In terms of themes popping up in the conventional media, the composition of the coverage was uni-form across all banks.

Key Th emes in the Conventional Media


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People’s view on the lenders’ products and serv-ices was the factor that exclusively infl uenced the social-media profi le of the banks. The customer services at local branches and online-banking user experience further triggered the conversation in the social media and helped building up the image of the sector, often in contradicting nuances.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) was the only topic treated in a largely positive light across the coverage of all banks evaluated in this report. The

social media frequently discussed various spon-sorship activities and campaigns initiated by the banks.

Societe Generale turned up as the sole bank that failed to generate any signifi cant conversation in the social media with its products and services. The stories in the social media regarding that bank mainly touched upon diff erent corporate stories and did not provide any customer testimonials.

Banking IndustryKey Th emes in the Social Media


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Evaluated through the coverage of the traditional news sources, the leadership, products & services and CSR themes, being the ones that provoked the most positive attitude and interest, had the highest net ef-fect on the industry’s reputation. On the other hand, the security theme – chiefl y discussed in a negative con-text both in the social and conven-tional media – had an unfavourable net eff ect on the sector’s media im-age, still not being able to counter-act the overall positive tone of most journalists towards the industry.

Banking Industry Net Eff ect on Reputation (based on conventional media)

Th e net eff ect on reputation is based on the volume of articles in the conventional media outlets, the major themes discussed in the conventional media as well as on the attitude of the media towards the pertaining banks and themes. Th e most infl uential media outlets in terms of readership, trust and overall image also weigh on the index, as they guarantee a certain eff ect of the media massage on the potential target audience.


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Despite the critical nature of the so-cial media, all the banks included in this report had positive Net Promot-er Scores. Technically, Societe Gen-erale got the highest NPS (2.18) but the majority of the comments dis-cussing Societe Generale in the social media were reprints of conventional media articles and overall there was no genuine discussion of the bank’s products and services. Therefore, the actual leaders according to that metric were naturally FIB (1.64) and Unicredit Bulbank (1.54) - although second and third in terms of fi gures - as their products and the quality of their customer service received a signifi cant acclaim in the online blogs and forums.

Banking Industry Net Promoter Score (based on social media)

Th e Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures a business entity’s performance through the eyes of its end-consumers. It quantifi es the likelihood of recommendation of a certain entity by tracking down the pertaining opinions expressed in various social media outlets and categorising them as promoters (loyal customers, enthused to make referrals), critics (unhappy, dissatisfi ed customers, willing to voice loud and clear their dissatisfaction), and neutrals (satisfi ed but unenthusiastic customers).


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Unicredit Bulbank appeared in 335 articles in Bul-garian major news and business sources and in 90 comments in the social media between 1 January and 30 June 2011.

The largest share of media coverage, both in the conventional and the social media, showed posi-tive sentiment towards the bank – positive were 230 articles, or 69% of the total coverage in the conventional media and 61 comments, or 68% of the total in the social media.

The bank’s leadership position in the Bulgar-ian banking industry as well as its strong fi nancial performance in the fi rst half of 2011 and overall fi nancial stability drove its positive media image, according to the traditional news sources. The social media, in turn, was abundant with people sharing their good personal experience and satis-faction with various Bulbank products and services. The bank’s corporate social responsibility projects and internship programmes also contributed to its reputation.

Much lower in volume, the negative coverage in the conventional media (58 articles, 17% of the total conventional-media coverage) was going mainly around hacker attacks against the bank’s online system. Chiefl y bank security issues were also the trigger of the negative tone in the social media, spelled out in 22 comments, or 24%.

Unicredit BulbankOverview


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Unicredit Bulbank

Unlike the general similar trend in sentiment to-wards Unicredit Bulbank, the themes on the back-ground of which that sentiment was expressed were completely different in the social and in the traditional media.

The health of the banking industry and the econ-omy in Bulgaria seemed to be the main focus in the conventional media. Therefore, journalists of-

ten approached bankers at Unicredit Bulbank, as a major Bulgarian lender, for expert opinions and comments on the prospects of the local and glo-bal economy, financial and economic events and in particular on oil prices worldwide and stock mar-ket movements.

The social media, following its own agenda, was buzzing about Bulbank’s products and services. Debit and credit cards, as well as promotional mortgage loans, drew a lot of attention. Other conversations in the social media were provoked by Bulbank’s CSR initiatives and bank security is-sues.

Key Themes – Conventional vs Social Media


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Unicredit Bulbank Top Reputation Drivers, Key Th emes & Net Eff ect

(based on conventional media)

The leadership theme, for the most part revealed by articles citing Unicredit Bulbank’s top managers and reporting on industry awards, led by far the list of themes related to the bank and shaped its positive media profi le based on the coverage in conventional media.

The explicit interest of the media in the state and growth prospects for the sector placed the industry out-look as the second topic of impor-tance which weighed on Bulbank’s image but rather having a positive-to-neutral net eff ect. The journalists strictly monitored and analysed the level of bad and underperforming loans at leading banks as well as the limited access to credits and loans and its impact on consumer spend-ing and the economic recovery as a whole.

The fi nancial performance and over-all health of Bulbank was another striking theme in the news. The con-ventional media massively reported on the bank’s decision to distribute a BGN-158.7m dividend in the end of 2010. Standard&Poor’s decision to upgrade Unicredit Bulbank’s credit rating also attracted a lot of media attention and naturally raised the positive coverage.

The conventional media outlets pro-duced a signifi cant amount of reviews on Bulbank’s products and services. Those reviews usually compared mortgage loans and promotional investment and deposit off erings of several sector players in an attempt to gauge the state of the industry and the economy in general.

The media profi le of Unicredit Bul-bank was harmed to some extend by the phishing attacks against the lender’s website, still, most of the reporting pointed out that the bank was quick to react and thwart the attacks.


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In terms of the products-and-services theme, which was the most interesting for the social-media users, conversations about using Bulbank debit and credit cards for online shopping from foreign web-sites were most popular and mixed in tone. In fact, the inability to use such cards for online payments or at ATMs abroad was the major reason for con-cern and frustration.

A couple of CSR initiatives caught the attention of the social-media authors, too. Various blogs and forums discussed Bulbank’s internship programme and the bank’s “Make a kid smile” charity cam-paign.

Bank security – the hacker attacks on the website - was the only theme in Bulbank’s social media cov-erage that drove entirely negative coverage and harmed the bank’s image.

Unicredit BulbankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Themes (based on social media)


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Unicredit BulbankTop Sources & Spokespeople

The majority of the coverage on Unicredit Bulbank was secured by business daily Dnevnik and online news source Money.bg – with 87 and 46 articles, respectively, or 26% and 14% of the entire conventional-media coverage. The topics on which they focused were leadership, finan-cial performance and products.

The most popular in the media among Unicredit Bulbank’s execu-tives, Kristofor Pavlov, the Chief Economist, was cited mainly regard-ing the overall state of the Bulgarian economy, the restructuring of bad and underperforming loans, and the global oil prices, whereas Levon Hampartsumian, the bank’s CEO, commented on trends in mortgage lending, investments and business crediting. Milen Kasabov, the Chief Economist, forecast the recovery of consumption levels in Bulgaria.

The expert opinions of all of Unicredit Bulbank’s spokespeople appeared exclusively in the conven-tional media outlets.


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Raiff eisenbankOverview

Raiff eisenbank was the subject of 276 articles in the conventional media and 53 comments in the social media for the period under study (1 January - 30 June 2011).

The general media image of Raiff eisenbank was very positive. There were 263 articles (84% of the conventional-media coverage) and 34 comments (64% of the social-media coverage), which featured favourable sentiment towards the bank.

The positive coverage of the traditional media was prompted by a large number of product launches and reviews, discussions on fi ndings of Raiff eisen-bank research reports and the expert opinions of top bank representatives on hot economic and fi -nancial matters. The negative coverage (26 articles, 10%) concentrated mainly on security issues like bank robberies.

In the social media the positive tone prevailed as people expressed their satisfaction with various Raiff eisenbank products and services. The negative coverage (only 6 comments, 11%) came from un-happy bank customers who had issues with some of the bank’s debit and credit cards.

Outside circle – conventional mediaInside circle – social media


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Raiff eisenbankKey Th emes – Conventional vs Social Media

The conventional media acknowledged Raiff eisen-bank’s major role in the Bulgarian economy by re-viewing the fi ndings of the bank’s research reports and quoting top bankers from Raiff eisen on promi-nent economic events.

The traditional media’s interest in the health and outlook of the economy and the banking industry resulted in plenty of thorough reviews of Raif-feisenbank’s product off erings and earnings.

Alternatively, the social media focused on a prag-matic evaluation of the bank’s products and serv-ices.


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In tune with the sector, the leadership theme was most prominent and with the highest net eff ect on Raiff eisen’s image, as the bank’s signifi cant pres-ence on the European and the Bul-garian market incited strong media interest in its economic prognoses and analyses, and in the opinions of its top bankers over economic events and trends. By covering Raiff eisen’s research reports and experts’ com-ments, the traditional media sought to assess the challenges and recovery prospects in front of the economy as well as the threats that might hinder the recovery.

The traditional media outlets also looked for clues on where the Bul-garian economy and the banking sec-tor were heading by studying the new products and services introduced by Raiff eisen on the domestic market. That is why Raiff eisenbank’s deposits and loans enjoyed a great deal of at-tention and positive coverage by the conventional sources.

Unlike its competitors, Raiff eisen featured almost no negative report-ing, even in relation to the security theme, which was coloured com-pletely in red in the case of the other banks covered by the study.

Raiff eisenbankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Th emes & Net Eff ect (based on conventional media)


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Raiffeisenbank’s products were the center of at-tention in the social media sparking quite colourful in sentiment mix of reactions. The online forum and blog users shared their personal experience, sometimes positive, sometimes utterly disappoint-ing and infuriating, in using the bank’s debit and credit cards for online shopping from foreign web-sites and ATMs abroad.

Raiffeisenbank’s mortgage loans also appeared in the social-media conversation since the bank cut the interest rates on its mortgage loans in the beginning of 2011. Although many comments ex-pressed uncertainty whether their monthly pay-ments really went down as a result of this cut, overall the customers were happy with the bank and the loan terms.

On the contrary, some commentators were ir-ritated by the bank’s policy to charge fees when servicing group-coupon website purchases and payments.

RaiffeisenbankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Themes (based on social media)


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Money.bg, Dnevnik, and Investor.bg pub-lished the highest number of articles on Raiff eisenbank during the monitoring pe-riod (30, 21, and 15 articles, respectively). The tone of these top publications was predominantly favourable as they regular-ly reviewed new deposit and loan prod-ucts introduced on the Bulgarian market and analysed the fi ndings of various Reif-feisenbank research reports.

Momchil Andreev, Executive Director of Raiff eisenbank Bulgaria, Kalyoan Ganev, Chief Economist of Raiff eisenbank Bul-garia, and Ivan Velkov, Manager at Raif-feisen Real Estate, were the top three quoted Raiff eisenbank executives (15, 11, and 5 mentions, respectively).

Momchil Andreev chiefl y discussed new product off erings, the fi nancial perform-ance and the investment portfolio of the bank. Kaloyan Ganev appeared in the media talking about various factors that could stimulate or hinder the eco-nomic recovery of the country, while Ivan Velkov commented on the Bulgarian real-estate market.

Raiff eisenbankTop Sources & Spokespeople


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DSKOverview

DSK brought about 243 articles in the conventional media and 143 comments in the social media for the period 1 January - 30 June 2011.

Similar to its competitors, DSK’s media reputation was generally boosted by the large share of posi-tive coverage of the conventional media with 191 positive articles, or 79% of the entire conventional-

media coverage. The favourable tone came up af-ter DKS published strong fi nancial results for 2010 and the fi rst quarter of 2011, won the Bank-of-the-Year award of Pari Daily and following numerous reviews of new products and services. The inter-est in DSK’s products was also leading the positive coverage of the social media with 46 comments, making up 49% of the total number of posts.

The negative sentiment - shown by 24 articles in the traditional media (10%) and triggered by the bank security theme - could not signifi cantly ham-per the overall positive image of the bank. In terms of social media, though, the negative tone was dominant in some 27% of the total posts, equal to 25 comments.



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DSKKey Th emes – Conventional vs Social Media

The conventional media was mainly concerned with the overall state and growth prospects for the Bulgarian economy and banking sector. There-fore, the local media closely monitored all banks’ fi nancial performance, including DSK’s results, and analysed how the Greek debt collapse would in-fl uence the Bulgarian banks. Additionally, DSK top managers often appeared in the media to discuss salient economic and fi nancial events, which raised

the volume of coverage under the fi nancial-per-formance, the leadership and the industry-outlook themes.

On the other hand, the social media focused on topics that did not pose any serious interest to the conventional media’s themes. The forum and blog users turned sight almost thoroughly to the practi-cal application of DKS’s products and services.


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DSKTop Reputation Drivers, Key Th emes & Net Eff ect


Leadership and fi nancial performance ranked as the top drivers for DSK’s media reputation in 2011’s fi rst half. The conventional media was reit-erating DSK was one of the two banks in Bulgaria which ended 2010 with a profi t of more than BGN 100m (the other one was Unicredit Bulbank), and although its annual profi t of BGN 130m marked a decrease against 2009, the bank raised its share in the sector’s overall profi t. Moreover, articles about the fi nancial results of some of DSK’s key subsidi-aries like DSK Rodina hiked the positive coverage towards the bank. In a similar tone, major news and business sources reported on DSK decision to fi nance several major projects in Bulgaria like the Rockefeller Group’s acquisition of Mall of Sofi a.

Also, the traditional media was abundant with economic forecasts and analyses of the potential impact of the Greek fi nancial crisis on the capitali-sation of the Bulgarian banks and the recovery of the local economy.

The news stories related to bank security issues at DSK were exclusively negative in tone. The tra-ditional media wrote about a robbery of one of the bank’s offi ces in the end of 2010 and a phishing attack against DSK online banking system, which harmed to some extend DSK’s media image.


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DSKTop Reputation Drivers, Key Themes (based on social media)

The social-media image of DSK was exclusively shaped on the background of the products and the customer-services themes, as it was the case with DSK’s competitor banks. Most of the people dis-cussed their online shopping experience using DSK credit and debit cards. DSK’s virtual card received

a great amount of praise as people considered it safer and easier to use than an ordinary debit or credit card. On the other hand, there were numer-ous complains about the interest rates at the bank and the transparency of the loan conditions related to the cards.

The quality of the customer services at DSK was the driver of more negative comments as people complained about DSK employees being rude and unwilling to help.


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DSKTop Sources & Spokespeople

Business daily Dnevnik topped the list of sources reporting on DSK with almost 50% in volume ahead of the second, Money.bg, and 70% ahead of the third, Investor.bg. The tone of the top publications was predomi-nantly positive, since they reported on DSK’s strong fi nancial perform-ance and quoted top DSK managers.

The few negative articles in the pa-pers were related to the security is-sues which DSK experienced.

DSK Rodina’s Portfolio Manager Konstantin Abrashev, the executive most often quoted among DSK man-agers, commented on the fi nancial activities and the results of large do-mestic listed companies as well as on key events on the capital markets in Bulgaria and abroad.

Violina Marinova, the bank’s CEO, spoke about the Bulgarian economy, the mortgage and consumer credit markets and the level of bad and un-derperforming loans in the sector.

Yassen Ivanov, Portfolio Manager at DSK Asset Management, was ap-proached regarding movements at the capital markets in Bulgaria and worldwide.

DSK’s experts were mostly quoted in conventional media articles.


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United Bulgarian Bank Overview

United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) generated 238 arti-cles in local major news and business sources and 56 posts in the social media in the period 1 January – 30 June 2011.

The nomination for the Bank-of-the-Year award, several new credit and loan products with low pro-motional interest rates, and the sponsorship of var-ious sports and culture events prompted the bulk of the positive coverage, which highly dominated in

the conventional media (184 articles, 77% of total coverage there). The negative coverage on UBB, more than fi ve times less in volume (36 articles, or 15% ), was triggered by news reports on Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s downgrading UBB.

There was some rough parity among the positive (24 comments, or 43%) and the negative (23 com-ments, or 41% ) social-media coverage on UBB. The positive comments discussed UBB’s new

credit and deposit off erings that featured favour-able and lucrative interest rates and payment op-tions. UBB’s sponsorship of the Bulgarian National Biathlon Team also drew applause in the social media. On the other hand, unhappy customers complained about the bank fees and bad customer service, which to a large extend harmed the media reputation of UBB.


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United Bulgarian Bank Key Th emes – Conventional vs Social Media

Some completely diff erent themes led UBB’s media coverage in the conventional and the social media.

The conventional media focused on fi nancial and economic news like UBB’s profi t drop in 2010 and the expert opinion of prominent UBB bankers on various economic events.

The online forums and blogs, however, focused their attention on the quality of the customer serv-ices at UBB and reviewed some of the bank’s retail products and services.


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United Bulgarian Bank Top Reputation Drivers, Key Th emes & Net Eff ect


UBB fi nancial performance domi-nated the news during the monitor-ing period, having a high but mixed in tone net eff ect. Numerous reports on S&P, Fitch and Moody’s lowering UBB’s credit rating and on UBB year-end fi nancial results made plenty of headlines as the bank posted a 26,5% profi t drop for 2010.

Yet, the traditional media affi rmed UBB’s major role in the Bulgarian banking industry as they frequently referred to some of UBB’s top bank-ers to comment ongoing economic and fi nancial events and trends.

The conventional media overfl ew with product reviews, discussing UBB’s new mortgage loans and deposit and investment products. UBB’s products and services were usually evaluated versus competitor ones aimed at determining the cur-rent state and future outlook of the Bulgarian economy and the banking sector.

Another strong reputation driver was the corporate social responsibil-ity theme. Activities such as UBB’s sponsorship of sports events and the Bulgarian National Biathlon Team, caused serious interest and only pos-itive sentiment in the conventional media, accounting for 14% of the to-tal conventional-media coverage.


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United Bulgarian Bank Top Reputation Drivers, Key Themes (based on social media)

While the conventional media focused on financial and economic topics and was predominantly posi-tive in tone, the social media was preoccupied dis-cussing UBB’s products and customer service and displayed a markedly critical tone.

The social-media authors criticised UBB’s debit and credit cards as customers of the bank were unable to shop from foreign websites or use ATMs

abroad. Other bank clients expressed their frustra-tion with the long mortgage-taking process and the bad online banking service.

Moreover, dissatisfaction with the customer serv-ices at some local branches and the bank’s helpline drove a series of negative comments in the social media. Following the same tone, blog and forum users deemed some of the bank fees as “unreason-ably high”.

And although some users praised UBB’s invest-ment and deposit instruments , in particular the favourable and lucrative payment and interest rate terms of the investment instruments, that could not buck the overall negative tone even with the help of the CSR activities which were 100% col-oured in green.


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United Bulgarian Bank Top Sources & Spokespeople

UBB had a strong media presence in the national dailies. The majority of the articles appeared in Dnevnik, Money.bg, and Investor.bg (75, 30 and 29 articles, respectively), which reported mostly on UBB’s profit decrease for 2010, the rating down-grade, promotions of new consumer and mortgage credit products, as well as on its deposit products and investment instruments.

Expert opinions of UBB’s bankers, who commented on government se-curities and the state of the Bulgarian stock market, were also frequently published by the three sources.

Portfolio Managers Boncho Ivanov and Alexander Madzhirov, the two UBB bankers mostly quoted by the media, discussed a wide array of topics ranging from government se-curities and the state of the Bulgar-ian stock market to various deposit instruments and the world oil prices after the earthquake in Japan.

Stilyan Vatev, UBB CEO, comment-ed on the outlook for the Bulgarian economy and the interest rates on deposits and loans.

UBB’s spokespeople were quoted 32 times in total, predominantly in the conventional media outlets.


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Societe GeneraleOverview

Societe Generale (SG) featured in 187 articles in Bulgarian traditional news and business sources and in 30 comments in the social media between 1 January and 30 June 2011.

The overall tone of the conventional media to-wards Societe Generale was very positive (128 articles, or 68% of the total conventional-media coverage) bringing to the front its strong fi nancial results and market leadership. The negative cov-erage (22 articles, or 12%) revolved exclusively around Moody’s warning to reduce the credit rat-

ing of French owner Societe Generale SA due to its exposure to the Greek debt woes. However, the negativity stemming from that move, even tak-ing into account its potential impact on SG’s local subsidiary, could not counteract the highly positive image of the bank in Bulgaria, helped further by its corporate social responsibility campaigns and a number of new products and services.

The media reputation of Societe Generale was aided even more by the social media (SM), which generated predominantly positive mentions in re-

gards to the bank (26 comments, 86% of the total SM coverage). The bank drew praise on a green initiative undertaken in April, in which Societe Gen-erale was one of the three companies that bought the fi rst electric cars in Bulgaria.

The negative sentiment in the social media (4 com-ments, or 14%) was linked to news related to the mother bank, not the Bulgarian unit.


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Societe GeneraleKey Themes – Conventional vs Social Media

Identical themes dominated SG’s media coverage in the conventional and the social media. The con-ventional media focused on financial and economic news like SG’s solid year-end results for 2010 and SG’s outlook review by Fitch and Moody’s. The traditional news outlets also acknowledged Soci-

ete Generale’s leading role in the banking sector as they frequently quoted prominent SG representa-tives on the state of the Bulgarian and the world economy, the stock markets, on management moves in the European Central Bank.

Similarly, the social media was talking over repub-lished articles from the conventional media which discussed various global and local economic events. These articles featured prominent SG bankers and their expert opinions.


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Societe GeneraleTop Reputation Drivers, Key Th emes & Net Eff ect (based on conventional media)

Financial performance was the most salient theme on Societe Generale in the major news and business publi-cations in Bulgaria. Yet, along with the bank’s strong fi nancial report for 2010, the media also highlighted SG’s disappointing results in Q1 2011. The credit rating updates by Fitch and Moody’s, which were closely moni-tored by the media, prompted dis-cussions about the overall health and performance of both the French-run bank and the Bulgarian unit.

Moreover, the conventional media was abundant with interviews of top SG bankers and fi ndings of numer-ous SG economic research reports which affi rmed Societe Generale’s leading role in Europe and Bulgaria. The Bank-of-the-Year award by the Association Bank of the Year further enhanced the lender’s image of an industry leader, which hiked the net eff ect on its reputation.

Corporate social responsibility initia-tives and new deposit and loan prod-ucts also attracted serious media at-tention and boosted the favourable sentiment towards Societe Generale. The traditional media reviewed them in conjunction with products of com-petitor banks and in attempt to get better understanding of the current state and future outlook of the Bul-garian economy and banking sector.


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Societe GeneraleTop Reputation Drivers, Key Themes (based on social media)

The major part of the posts in the social media consisted of reprints of articles that first appeared in conventional news outlets. SG’s involvement in a helicopter purchase for the Bulgarian Army and the audition for a financial consultant of the Belene nuclear power plant were some of the themes, on which the social-media users were comment-

ing. Moody’s warning to put SG’s credit rating on “negative watch” with a possibility for further downgrade also made up a part of the headlines in the social media but, just like in the conventional media, with a more negative effect on the lender’s media image.

As in the traditional media again, the purchase of one of the first 100%-electric cars in Bulgaria drew the attention of the social sources and contributed to the overall reputation of the bank.


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Societe GeneraleTop Sources & Spokespeople

The biggest share of articles on So-ciete Generale appeared in Dnevnik, Investor.bg, Money.bg, and Klassa (48, 23, 22, and 15 articles, respec-tively). They focused on SG’s finan-cial performance, the nomination and winning of the-Bank-of-the-Year annual award, Moody’s rating review and its consequences for the unit in Bulgaria.

Furthermore, Investor.bg, Klassa and Dnevnik actively sought SG bankers’ view on the state of the Bulgarian banking industry as well as on silver prices. The bank’s spokespeople were also cited as commenting on Jean-Claude Trichet stepping down as a director of the European Cen-tral Bank as well as on the increase of oil prices.

Martin Zaimov was the only Bulgar-ian SG representative cited in the media (3 mentions). He commented on the state of the European bank-ing sector and the level and impact of bad and underperforming loans in the Bulgarian economy.

The media was filled with interviews of top bankers from the parent bank discussing various global economic events and trends.


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PostbankOverview

Postbank generated 185 articles in Bulgarian ma-jor news and business news outlets and 109 com-ments in the social media for the period 1 January – 30 June 2011.

Generally the sentiment in the conventional and social media was favourable towards Postbank. The positive tone in the conventional media featured in 134 articles, or 72% of the CM coverage, with the core drivers of Postbank’s reputation being its leadership role in the domestic banking industry

and its stable fi nancial performance in Q1 2011. Fa-vourable reviews of the bank’s new products and services also contributed to its positive image.

The negative coverage in the traditional media (32 articles, 17%) discussed the impact of the Greek fi nancial woes on the Bulgarian economy and the Greek-owned banks in the country. It also touched upon some bank security issues.

Over half of the social media coverage was posi-tive in tone (57 comments, 52% of the total SM coverage) as Postbank’s products drew a lot of praise. However, almost one-third of the posts in the social media (28 comments, 26%) had a nega-tive sentiment and commented on the bank fees and increased mortgage interest rates, which wors-ened Postbank’s media image. It must be noted though that a signifi cant number of forum and blog comments gave an insight into products of various fi nancial institutions, such as Postbank, without ex-plicitly disapproving them.



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PostbankKey Themes – Conventional vs Social Media

The conventional media was preoccupied with re-views on the state of the banking industry and the economy as a whole, which also involved reports on Postbank’s financial results and capital positions. The large number of top Postbank managers, who were quoted as commenting on major economic and financial events, further affirmed the leader-ship theme as the biggest reputation driver for Postbank, also thanks to reports proving the bank’s vital role in the Bulgarian banking industry.

In terms of Postbank’s products and new offerings, the traditional media evaluated them in compari-son with similar competitive ones in an attempt to give an insight on where the Bulgarian economy was heading.

The social media provided quite a different per-spective on Postbank’s products and services. It focused on various customer concerns and issues with the retail products of the bank.

The online forums and blogs were full of discus-sions on how to refinance mortgage loans and use Postbank’s credit and debit cards for online shop-ping.


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PostbankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Th emes & Net Eff ect


The leadership theme boasted the highest volume of coverage and an entire positive tone as the major news and business outlets in Bulgaria often approached Postbank’s top managers to give their view on the level of bad and underperforming loans, and on the economic growth prospects for the country. In addition, the bankers commented on the eff ects of the Greek woes on the Bulgarian economy.

The media view over the health of the economy was also weighed through examining Postbank’s fi nancial performance and any developments at its Greek parent, Eurobank EFG. That prompted mixed sentiment towards the bank, as the negative tone was obvious in stories saying S&P, Fitch and Moody’s slashed the credit ratings of a number of Greek banks including Eurobank EFG, which automatically reduced the rating of its Bulgarian unit. Moreover, Postbank’s reputation was hit after reports on the worsening economic and fi nancial situation in Greece accompanied by rallies, strikes and uncertainty in front of the country.

In a further attempt to get a clearer picture of the economic situation in Bulgaria, the papers tracked Postbank’s credits and deposits, mostly coloured in a favourable tone and having a positive net eff ect on its image.

An event, which brought negative sentiment and somewhat damaged Postbank’s image, was Asen Yagodin stepping down from the chief executive post after a 20-year experience at the bank. Ya-godin’s move to head the Bulgarian Development Bank got a big share of coverage in the conven-tional media in April.


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PostbankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Themes (based on social media)

The use of debit and credit cards (mainly VISA and VISA Electron) issued by Postbank for purchases from foreign websites was a repeating topic in the social media. People were also looking for a per-sonal piece of advice on the bank’s mortgage loans and the interest’s growth rate through the years.

Also in relation to mortgage loans, the social me-dia users were commenting on the overall financial state of the banks in Bulgaria following which the industry outlook captured 10% of all social me-dia articles, which were predominantly positive in tone.

The customer-services theme, however, drew negative comments as Postbank’s clients expressed their frustration with the quality of the service they received at the local offices (half of the articles on customer services were negative in tone).


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PostbankTop Sources & Spokespeople

Dnevnik and Money.bg generated the highest number of articles on Postbank (50 and 25 articles, respec-tively). These publications reported extensively on the fi nancial results of the bank and its capital positions. The departure of Asen Yagodin also drew their attention.

Postbank’s executives who were most often cited by the media - Asen Yagodin, Executive Director, Antho-ny Hasiotis, Chairman of the Board, and Petya Dimitrova, Deputy Board Chairman and Executive Director - commented mainly on the state of the Bulgarian economy, the levels of crediting and on deposit instru-ments.

Moreover, Asen Yagodin was cited as assessing the level of bad and un-derperforming loans and investment instruments as a good alternative in the relationship between risk and return.

Anthony Hasiotis commented on Eurobank’s proposal to create an association of export-oriented fi rms in articles predominantly positive in tone.

Petya Dimitrova, in turn, was cited as saying that there was an increasing interest from Greek companies to open offi ces in Bulgaria, adding Bul-garia should take advantage of that.

The expert opinion of all of Post-bank’s spokespeople appeared ex-clusively in the conventional media outlets.


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Piraeus BankOverview

Piraeus Bank generated 139 articles in local major news and business sources and 36 comments in the social media for the period 1 January 2011 – 30 June 2011.

The conventional media was predominantly posi-tive in tone (89 articles, 64% of the total conven-tional-media coverage), mainly following reports on

the large market share of the Greek-owned banks in Bulgaria as well as on various Piraeus products. On the other hand, reports about the Greek fi nan-cial crisis and its potential impact on Piraeus Bank and the Bulgarian economy prompted the negative tone in the conventional media expressed in 45 ar-ticles, or 32% of all.

The conversation in the social media was pretty critical about Piraeus (16 comments, 45% of the total SM coverage), as it revolved mainly around the quality of the bank products and customer services. Still, the bank’s products gained also some approval, generating 11 comments, or 30% of the total.


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Piraeus BankKey Themes – Conventional vs Social Media

The themes which drew the attention of the con-ventional and the social media were very different in nature and perspective. The traditional media sources showed a serious interest in the financial performance and outlook of the Greek-owned banks in Bulgaria. Besides, they examined Piraeus’s loan and deposit products in an attempt to evalu-ate the current state and future outlook of the Bul-garian economy.

Again the bank’s products, but from a customer perspective, were in the centre of the buzz in the social media. The customer point of view was also the driver of the conversation about the client services at Piraeus, a theme which was quite popu-lar among the social-media authors but very limited in coverage in the case of the traditional media.


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Piraeus BankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Th emes & Net Eff ect


The theme, on the background of which Piraeus was most discussed by the conventional media, was the bank’s fi nancial performance in general as well as its liquidity and debt levels, bad debts and asset quality in particular (31% of the overall cover-age). The interest was mainly caused by the news about the rating downgrade of the Greek parent, Piraeus, and the possible eff ects of that move on the Bulgarian subsidiary; 47% of the fi nancial-performance-related articles commented on that topic.

Another 29% centred around results releases – the group issued a 21% year-on-year drop in pre-pro-vision profi ts at EUR 611m for the full 2010 and a 28% growth in pre-tax and provision profi ts for the fi rst quarter of 2011 at EUR 181m. In that context, the media focus was also on the capital and divi-dend distribution policy of the bank, namely on the decision not to distribute dividends for 2010, but to capitalise the profi ts.

Another topic of a great interest for the tradi-tional media was the products-and-services one; it made up 19% of the overall reporting. Promotional deposit programmes, like the 3-month deposit with an increasing interest rate and the standard 12-month deposit with an increasing interest rate in euro and Bulgarian leva, got the larger share of coverage, while other products such as agricultural loans and the Cash Manager programme attracted considerably less media attention.

The articles analysing the infl uence of the Greek woes on Piraeus, the banking industry and the Bulgarian economy were next in terms of having a signifi cant net eff ect on the lender’s image based on the conventional-media coverage, followed by news about Piraeus’s corporate social responsibil-ity projects. A joint campaign with UNICEF for dis-advantaged children and an internship the lender had off ered came up in 10% of the total volume of articles. A smaller share, 6%, had the articles re-porting on a robbery attempt in a Piraeus Bank’s local branch in the town of Stara Zagora.


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Piraeus BankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Themes (based on social media)

The conversation in the social media went ex-clusively about the bank’s debit and credit cards and the online payment of utility services, to a big extend in a positive light. Still, some users shared problems around shopping from foreign web sites, others were unhappy with Piraeus Bank’s reference rate policy.

In view of Piraeus’s customer services, its helpline attracted heavily negative comments. In addition, customers frequently expressed their frustration with the quality of service they received at local branches, which triggered negative judgments in 66% of the posts on that topic.

The rest of the themes, some of which largely pre-vailed in the conventional media coverage, were of almost no importance for the users of the social media.


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Piraeus BankTop Sources & Spokespeople

Dnevnik, Money.bg and Dir.bg gen-erated the highest number of articles on Piraeus Bank during the moni-tored period (38, 20, 14 articles, re-spectively).

Overall, the positive coverage was focused on Piraeus Bank’s short- and long-term deposit offerings, consum-er credit lines, as well as on the new programme for companies, Cash Manager.

Some negative reports though were discussing the decision of all three major rating agencies, Standard and Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s, to cut the long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of Piraeus.

Spokespeople of Greek-owned Pi-raeus were rarely cited by the Bul-garian media during the 2011’s first half despite of the booming crisis in Greece. However, there were plenty of unnamed expert opinions from the bank appearing in the papers and online editions.

Mihalis Salas, General Manager of Piraeus Financial Group, comment-ed on the mergers and acquisitions in the sector, as well as on various bank consolidation programmes. Athanasios Kutsopulos, CEO of Pi-raeus Bank Bulgaria was discussing the relationship between the savings growth and the conservative market, while his deputy, Emil Angelov, spoke about the trends in mortgage lending during the first six months of 2011.


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First Investment BankOverview

First Investment Bank (FIB) was picked up in 137 articles of major general and business news sources and 143 comments in the social media for the period 1 January – 30 June 2011. The bank has been very active in the social media - engaging bloggers and online forum users, pushing product promotions and addressing complains and recom-mendations.

Overall the media image of FIB was very positive, helped to a greater extend by the conventional-media coverage, whose positive share was 79%,

or 108 articles, of the total conventional-media reporting. The favourable tone there came from numerous reports on the fi nancial performance of the bank, new product launches as well as from several successful marketing and CSR campaigns. The negative coverage, with just 18 articles, or 13% of the total, could not buck the positive trend and hurt seriously the bank’s reputation. The negative tone was chiefl y provoked by stories about bank security issues.

The social media also contributed to the media rep-utation of FIB with the biggest share of 60% of the social-media coverage, or 86 comments coloured in green. This comes as no surprise as FIB has been very proactive in utilising the social media channels. On the other hand, complains about online shop-ping with debit and credit cards and transparency issues with loan contracts conditions prompted the negative sentiment in the social media - 33 com-ments, or 23%.


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First Investment BankKey Themes – Conventional vs Social Media

Quite different topics caught the attention of the conventional and the social media. While the con-ventional media outlets focused on the overall fi-nancial state of First Investment Bank, its products and services (with an accent on innovative prod-

ucts), and advertising and CSR campaigns, almost none of FIB’s CRS activities were discussed in the social-media conversations. Those conversations circled almost entirely around the bank’s products and the quality of its customer services.


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First Investment BankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Th emes & Net Eff ect


The major news and business out-lets in Bulgaria focused on FIB’s in-novative products and services of-ferings such as launching of the fi rst non-contact payment system in the country, which defi ned the positive attitude towards the bank and was one of its core reputation drivers. The media also reviewed various FIB mortgage, consumer credit and de-posit fi nancial products in an attempt to provide an insight on the state and the future of the banking industry and the economy in general.

Roughly the same volume of cover-age and still predominantly positive tone garnered the fi nancial perform-ance theme. Reports on the bank’s net profi t growth of almost 15% for the fi rst quarter of 2011 prevailed. Besides, the decision of FIB to with-hold dividend payments for 2010 and 2011 and issue bonds to secure extra fi nancing also triggered positive media coverage, such as the decision of Fitch to upgrade the bank’s credit rating.

FIB’s TV campaign featuring football player Dimatar Berbatov drew a lot of media attention in extremely posi-tive colours, thus had a high net eff ect on its image. The budget on market-ing also received some coverage.

Again extremely positive sentiment expressed articles about FIB spon-soring the marathon in the town of Kavarna, the Bulgarian Olympic Committee, the Bulgarian Athletics Federation and the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in Bansko.


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First Investment BankTop Reputation Drivers, Key Themes (based on social media)

The conversation in the social media revolved al-most exclusively around the bank products and services, mainly debit and credit cards and online banking, as well as the quality of the customer service provided by FIB.

The use of debit and credit cards issued by FIB for online shopping from foreign websites was a recur-ring theme in the social media, which prompted mixed, yet mostly positive sentiment towards the

bank. In more negative nuances, people expressed their attitude regarding the quality of the customer service they received at the local branches. Al-though ranging from frustration to satisfaction, most of the sentiment in the comments was posi-tive in nature.

The comments touched upon several key top-ics such as the local offices’ helpline, the internet banking service and the bank offices’ availability in

weekends. In a more positive mood, FIB’s market-ing campaigns and TV commercials like the one featuring Berbatov were also interesting for the bloggers and forums authors.

It must be noted that FIB’s Department for Alter-native Communication Channels frequently organ-ises events involving prominent Bulgarian bloggers. These events significantly boost the banks presence and enhance FIB’s image in the blogosphere.


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First Investment BankTop Sources & Spokespeople

Business online news sources Mon-ey.bg and Investor.bg, and dailies Dnevnik and Standard produced the highest number of articles on First Investment Bank (30, 15, 21, 12, re-spectively).

The events they focused on were chiefly linked to the financial perform-ance of the bank, its dividend policy and its credit rating. FIB’s sponsor-ship of Bulgarian sport committees and marathon events also attracted the attention of the journalists at those outlets.

Maya Georgieva, Executive Director of FIB, was cited mainly in relation to the bank’s corporate social responsi-bility campaigns and particularly the bank’s sponsorship of the Bulgar-ian Athletics Federation, whereas Valentina Grigorova, Head of Gold and Numismatics Department, com-mented on gold and silver prices.

Articles about products, new offers and about the bank’s new electronic loyalty system included comments by Milka Todorova, Head of Retail Banking Department, and Nikola Bakalov, Head of Card Payments. Furthermore, Ivaylo Aleksandrov, PR Specialist, explained FIB’s decision to finance a new medical center in Sofia, and gave his opinion on a bank rob-bery in one of the bank’s branches.

The expert opinion of all of FIB’s spokespeople appeared exclusively in the conventional media outlets.


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The study lays down on Bulgar-ian major general and business news sources selected based on their position in independent sociologi-cal rankings, which classify them in terms of readership and audience figures, readers’ trust and loyalty, objectivity, overall reputation, popu-larity and media focus. The selection excludes media with political, lifestyle and sports focus; economy-focused media are prioritised due to goals of the research.

The study covers only relevant ed-itorial articles and postings, excluding re-published press releases and arti-cles (links from different sources) as well as passing mentions.

Spokespeople numbers include actual citing by media, not all men-tions.

For more information about Perceptica, please contact us:

Sales [email protected] London, United Kingdom (+44 203) 608 1431 Sofia, Bulgaria (+359 2) 8012 682 Vienna, Austria (+43) 12297120 Washington, USA (+1) 2025039945

General enquiries Perceptica Media Research [email protected] www.perceptica.com

Address 64, Kiril I Metodii Str., 1202 Sofia, Bulgaria

Methodology & general information

The methodology

Contacts

Perceptica Media Research is a product of AII Data Processing (www.aiidatapro.com), a worldwide provider of data management, business content and media evaluation services with over 15 years of experience. The company employs more than 270 people supporting 30+ languages, 24/7, out of its offices in Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. AII Data Processing is also the publisher of SeeNews (www.seenews.com), the business news and market intelligence supplier, and of SeeNews TOP 100, the ranking of the biggest companies in Southeast Europe.


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Documents

Bulgarian Banking Industry - Percepticaperceptica.com/.../uploads/2012/11/01-Banking_Industry_fullreport.pdf · Bulgarian Banking Industry ... products and services and the customer