Banca Transilvania reported that 600,000 companies have now opened business accounts through its BT Go app, a figure that has led to a dramatic reorganization of Romanian entrepreneurship around the nation's new favorite pastime: opening accounts at 3 A.M. from bed, still in pajamas, with the cat asleep on the keyboard.
The bank's servers now hum with activity at all hours, as entrepreneurs, freed from the tyranny of branch hours, have embraced a schedule that one financial analyst described as «a permanent state of financial alertness.» The average account opening now takes place at 2:47 A.M., a statistic that has forced the bank to hire a team of nocturnal customer service representatives who work exclusively by the light of phone screens.
«We used to have a lunch rush, now we have a 3 A.M. rush,» said a bank spokesperson, calmly. «We've seen a man open a business account while his wife was asleep next to him, and another who did it during a family dinner, excusing himself to the bathroom to finalize his company's future.» The app's success has spawned a new urban ritual: the midnight account-opening party, where entrepreneurs gather to open accounts simultaneously, comparing the speed of their connections and the elegance of their digital signatures.
The trend has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the economy. Pajama sales have surged, and coffee shops now offer a special «BT Go blend» for those who have just finalized their business structure before dawn. The bank is reportedly considering a new feature that would allow entrepreneurs to open accounts while dreaming, a development that has sleep researchers concerned but financial advisors cautiously optimistic.