Welcome to Erste Bank!
Useful information for existing Commerzbank Zrt. clients that decide to become Erste Bank customers
Erste looks back on a history of more than 200 years. Since the beginning, we have been working as a stable financial service provider in the region to promote and enhance the financial welfare and health of our customers.
Commerzbank AG and Erste Bank Hungary Zrt. signed a purchase agreement on 17th December 2021 regarding the shares of Commerzbank Zrt. in Hungary. Implementation of the transaction was approved by all supervisory authorities, making it possible for the integration to enter the next phase where Commerzbank Zrt.’s entire customer portfolio would be transferred to Erste Bank.
Erste Bank’s corporate division has been growing dynamically for years and taken first place in customers satisfaction polls in each of the past four years. We are going to do everything we can to ensure your satisfaction with the services provided by Erste Bank and we are confident that the integration of Commerzbank Zrt.’s customer portfolio will result in Erste Bank becoming a better and more efficient financial institution.
Information on Services
Frequently Asked Questions
All customers will be notified of their future contact person individually.
All relevant customers will be contacted by our customer account managers. Unfortunately, video identification is not supported.
We are going to provide the very same products and services as best we can and with the least amount of changes possible, thus it does not mean in itself a change in conditions. Since pricing of some of our products are regulated by bilateral, tailored contracts typically, you can discuss a review of pricing with your contact person. Based on individual assessment and common business activity, the conditions may be renegotiated.
Please, indicate if you want to use this option, and we are going to contact you in the matter.
If you have a direct contract with a cash-in-transit logistics company, then you have no particular course of action to take. Following the customer portfolio transfer, cash will be transported to Erste Bank, and therefore you are kindly requested to notify your cash management company to deliver the cash shipments to Erste Bank instead of Commerzbank, and the cash management company will report the shipments to Erste Bank.
In case you have a contract with Commerzbank, it will become void, and another contract is to be established with Erste Bank. Importantly, you can only contract with us for cash transportation to you but not to us. Cash may be deposited in our branches or suitable ATMs or via cash management service providers.
For services to deliver cash to us, a separate contract is to be established with the cash management company directly.
Commerzbank’s SWIFT code was used on the invoice.
Please, notify your partners of Erste Bank’s SWIFT code immediately (GIBAHUHB, and, if the 11-digit code is required: GIBAHUHBXXX), to make sure that wire transfers are delivered duly.
If you have received paper-based account statements but cannot find the ones required for the audit, they could be substituted. Electra statements are accessible until the end of March 2023 in the archive Electra servers migrated from Commerzbank.
Download of statements in GPP will be possible until 2nd December the latest, and subsequently the system will not accessible in any way. You are advised to download past account information from the system any time, even today.
You will be contacted by Commerzbank AG staff with regard to cross border cash pool service, and a new contract will be established. Recontracting is just a formality if the cash-pool structure and members remain unchanged, but this way you will have a chance to decide whether you want to keep using this service going forward via Erste Bank as third-party banking service provider.
Please call our Erste Business24 service colleagues: +36 1 298 0223
Information about bank holiday
Erste Bank is holding a bank holiday between 00.00 on 1 December 2022 and 24.00 on 4 December 2022.
The reason for the bank holiday is Erste Bank’s acquisition of the shares of Hungarian Commerzbank Zrt. whose customers and portfolios are being migrated at this time, which requires a substantial amount of IT work on Erste Bank’s systems.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation.
Transactions in electronic systems
1. Wire transfers may be initiated at Commerzbank until 13.30 on 30 November due to a partial bank holiday. Outgoing transactions may not be initiated subsequently either in paper format or in electronic channels. Wages to be transferred to customer accounts will be received by Commerzbank until 17.00 and will be credited to the accounts immediately.
2. Erste Bank is holding a bank holiday between 0.00 on 1 December 2022 and 24.00 on 4 December 2022 to ensure secure implementation of migration-related tasks.
3. Between 0.00 and 22.00 on 1 December, Erste’s electronic channels (Vállalati Netbank, Electra) will be available, but only the accounts and authorisations will be accessible; account balances or transactions will not be available. Systems will not be available between 22.00 on 1 December and 24.00 on 4 December
4. In light of the above, you are advised to initiate wage transfers in Commerzbank system until 12.00 on 30 November in order to ensure same-day execution, because the next window of opportunity for wire transfers will open on 5 December.
5. Incoming domestic wire transfers will be received and processed by Erste Bank during the bank holiday and will be reflected in account balances on 5 December already.
- IG 1-IG 2 will be received between 1 and 5 December and will be credited in stages between 2 and 5 December.
- Viber transfers are received and credited starting on 5 December and they will be rejected on 1 and 2 December.
- IP transfers will be rejected on 1 and 2 December until migration of the account is completed. Subsequently, they will be received and credited to the account.
- Please, notify your partners to transfer funds as of 5 December, if possible.
Account numbers
6. Account numbers used by Commerzbank will not change after the integration, they will remain in use as before.
7. The SWIFT code used for international wire transfer will be changed as of 1 December, as COBAHUHX is replaced with GIBAHUHB. Please, notify your partners.
8. Account statements for 1 December (reflecting balances as at the time of migration) will be available on 5 December.
Bankcards
9. Corporate bankcards provided by Commerzbank cannot be used as of 18.00 on 30 November. New cards issued by Erste Bank may likely be activated on 2 December, and cardholders will be notified of the exact time in an SMS text message (in order to be able to use the card, personal activation of the card is also necessary following notification by the bank).
Contacts
10. Erste Bank’s entire branch office network will be closed on 2 December.
11. Should you have any questions regarding the above information, do not hesitate to contact us at ebhkkv@erstebank.hu.
Regarding the Commerzbank bank holiday, please find information at commerzbank.hu.
The security of your bank accounts is important to us. Below you will find some relevant advice.
Business E-mail Compromise (BEC) fraud
What methods are used by fraudsters?
BEC (Business E-mail Compromise) frauds are among online crimes with financially the most severe consequences. This fraud is based on human beings’ good faith and exploits the fact that emails are one of the main channels of keeping contact these days.
The perpetrators send an email on behalf of a business partner. This would not necessarily make the email suspicious, but emails of this kind often contain unusual requests, and in many cases they inform recipients that the number of a bank account previously used to make payments to has changed and the funds should be wire transferred to another bank account going forward. Of course, the new account is not registered to the partner the email purports to be sent from. Amounts thus swindled out are then withdrawn in cash or transferred to third countries, considerably reducing the success of recovery initiated by companies that have fallen victim for this type of fraud.
Advice
If a partner notifies you in an email that their bank account has changed, reach out to said business partner in a different communication channel (phone, fax) to verify whether the original email was sent by them.
CEO fraud
What methods are used by fraudsters?
CEO fraud is a scam related to business correspondence. Impersonating one of the top managers of the company (CEO, CFO), the fraudsters send an email to an employee who is authorised to record wire transfers or has the means to act in the matter. The email asks the employee to handle the matter with full discretion or secrecy. Typically referring to a top-secret business transaction (an acquisition), the employee is asked to wire transfer a large amount to a certain bank account as soon as possible. In many cases, the employee is threatened to encounter dire consequences unless the transaction is done. Of course, such bank accounts are most often registered to fraudsters. Amounts thus swindled out are then withdrawn in cash or transferred to third countries, considerably reducing the success of recovery initiated by companies that have fallen victim for this type of fraud.
Advice
Awareness trainings for fraud prevention should be held by the organisation regularly, covering both CEO and BEC fraud methods.
Internal control for financial processes should be developed in a way that execution of corporate financial transactions can only be implemented alongside the Four Eyes Principle (record and validation). If it is not possible, confirmation should be sought through a channel other than email, and the internal regulation in effect is to be checked of how banking transfers may be initiated. Additionally, the organisational unit responsible for information security should also be advised.
Phishing
Manage your banking data with utmost care. We have collected some of the signs that indicate phishing to help you avoid this type of fraud.
Who is the sender?
- Bank
An email with bad grammar and misspellings is sent on behalf of the bank, but often from another email address than the bank’s own.
- Tax administration
In case of a tax refund, the relevant authorities will communicate through mail or your Ügyfélkapu [Customer Portal] account. Emails notifying you of tax refunds should be regarded with suspicion.
- Phone company
If you receive an email from a phone company notifying you of arrears, always check the validity of the website before supplying your data.
- Parcel services
If you did not order anything online, never divulge your card data on websites that look like being operated by parcel service companies.
- Public utilities and other service providers
If you get notification to pay a bill, always check whether you really have a contract with the service provider in question and how you usually pay your bills.
When you open a website from an email or an SMS text message, always check the address bar of your browser.
Such letters or SME text messages often come with bad grammar and misspellings.
When opening a phishing webpage, you will see no padlock icon in the address bar of the browser or it is not coloured in green (the indication of trustworthy websites).
Opened such a webpage and supplied your data inadvertently?
Call the bank’s call centre immediately for help 24 hours a day. While you are making the call, change your password.
Advice
If you experience anything unusual, do not hesitate to contact the company on behalf of which you are asked to provide your data. In these cases, you might want to contact the sender through a different channel. For example, if you received an email from your bank, call the call centre or use the email address posted on the homepage of the bank.