SBM magazine / 11-2018

MAGAZINE 

small business banking magazine 

mBank’s Ecosystem 

for SME customers 

ING Business — 

an omnichannel platform 

for business clients 

John Mark Williams: 

Business 

agility is a 

mindset 

Digital strategy and 

cooperation with fintechs 

Key takeaways from 

SME Banking Club events 2018 

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PROLOGUE 

Olena Gryniuk with John Mark Williams 

(Agile Business Consortium) during the 

CEE SME Banking Conference 2018 in Warsaw 

Dear Reader, 

In this issue of SBB Magazine, we share key insights and 

takeaways (pp. 26-45) from all of SME Banking Club’s main 

events in 2018, involving almost 500 SME bankers and experts 

from the regions where we have a presence and generating 

many fascinating ideas and insights. 

For the second year, we devoted a separate panel during our 

conferences to discussing cooperation models between 

banks and fintechs. We see that cooperation is evolving in the 

CEE region. Alior Bank in Poland opened a special space this 

September in which, together with startups from the fintech 

industry, the bank will implement new solutions under its 

RBL_START acceleration program (pp. 8-9). This year BGŻ BNP 

Paribas in Poland implemented a “Code for Cooperation with 

Startups” – changes that facilitate the Bank’s cooperation with 

new companies (p.6). Jelena Đurović (Societe Generale Srbija) 

contributed to this issue with the bank’s first collaboration experience with a startup when creating an offer for 

freelancers (pp. 10-12). 

The topic of digital transformation in SME Banking is a trendy topic all over the world and a guiding theme 

through all the articles in this issue. We drew up a Digital Transformation Study with the purpose of analyzing the 

digital transformation going on in SME Banking as well as digital strategies that banks have launched in the CEE 

region, thereby providing examples of how banks can digitalize services for their SME customers. (p. 5) 

Transactional Banking is the main starting point from which banks start their digital transformation. This issue 

of the magazine contains key notes from the presentation made by Adam Walendziewski (ING Bank Śląski) during 

the CEE SME Banking Club Conference 2018 in Warsaw (October 29-30) about the omnichannel digital platform 

– ING Business – launched for SME, Mid Corp and Wholesale customers in Poland, which covers all banking 

services and enables the electronic signing of documents (pp. 34-36). ING Business is an impressive example of 

the success of the Agile way of working in the bank. It was also implemented in and adapted for the Romanian 

market. (pp. 14-15) 

In creating an ecosystem of services which go beyond core banking, banks see an opportunity to obtain new 

sources of untapped profit and – just as essential – to deepen customer relationships and become an important 

partner for small businesses. We talked with Piotr Teodorczyk, Director of the Business Customer Department, 

about how this is done at mBank (Poland). (pp. 18-20) 

I am eager to see more examples of digital strategies from the CEE region in 2019 as well as more openness to 

digitalization and cooperation with startups. Looking forward to it! 

I wish you pleasant reading! 

Sincerely, 

Olena Gryniuk 

CEE Regional Director at SME Banking Club 

SMALL BUSINESS BANKING MAGAZINE 

3

CONTENT 

3 

5 

6 

8 

10 

13 

14 

16 

5 reasons to read this issue… 

Digital Strategies in SME Banking 

How BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank in Poland 

cooperates with startups 

RBL_: a new space and 

accelerator by Alior Bank 

What have we learned 

by developing the product 

in cooperation with users? 

Santander Bank Polska in Poland 

will service SMEs through virtual RMS 

An offer for Micro and SME segment 

at ING Bank Romania 

SMEs tend to opt for leased fleets 

22 

Achieving Competitive 

Advantage through Fact-based 

management in SME Banking 

MAGAZINE 

SBB Magazine 

Magazine of SME Banking Club 

SME Banking Club Team: 

Andrey Gidulyan 

ceo@smebanking.club 

@AGidulyan 

18 

mBank’s 

Ecosystem 

for SME 

customers 

24 

26 

28 

30 

32 

34 

37 

38 

39 

40 

42 

50 

51 

Automation of factoring 

services for SMEs 

Caucasus SME Banking Club 

Conference 2018 

Access to knowledge 

and networking are the primary 

needs of small businesses 

SME Banking Ecosystem 

at TBC Bank in Georgia 

SME Study tour to Poland: 

Inspired by innovations 

ING Business – an omnichannel 

platform for business clients 

CRM & Digital Transformation 

Why and How You Should Digitize 

Customer Relationships 

Deposit Marketplace for SMEs – 

Access to Savings Products 

Across Europe 

LeaseLink – Leasing as a method 

of payment 


Business agility is a mindset 

CEE SME Banking Club 

Conference 2018 


Conferences 2019 

About the SME Banking Club 

Olena Gryniuk 

cee@smebanking.club 

@olenagrinyuk 

Alexey Sayapin 

cis@smebanking.club 

sayapin.alexey 

Guest Authors: 

Jelena Đurović 

Design, layout: 

Alexander Kryachko 

Sources: 


SME Banking Club operated by: 

Gidulyan Company Ltd, 

61/31, Avtozavodskaya str., 

Kiev, 04114, Ukraine 

and 

GG Company Sp. z o.o. 

ul. Królewska 65a/1 

30-081, Krakow, Poland 


www.smebanking.events 

For details of advertising please contact 

us at cee@smebanking.club 

4 

NOVEMBER 2018

STUDY 

Digital Strategies in SME Banking 

The importance of becoming a digital 

bank is a trendy topic all over the 

world and has been discussed and 

covered recently by banking and software 

experts worldwide in numerous articles, 

research papers and other documents 

describing digital banking and why it is 

becoming increasingly important. 

There is no longer any option for banks but to 

change the way they are doing business and 

launch their digital transformation. This process 

goes far beyond launching a mobile app and 

includes digitalization of the front-office and 

back-office, costs, revenues, the customer 

experience, and most importantly, changing the 

mindset of the whole organization. It creates a 

fully digital ecosystem that cares for and allows 

both customers and employees to evolve. 

We drew up a Digital Banking Transformation. 

SME Banking Strategies Study with the purpose 

of analyzing the digital transformation going on 

in SME Banking as well as digital strategies that 

banks have launched in the CEE region, thereby 

providing examples of how banks can digitalize 

services for their SME customers. 

It is undoubtedly necessary for each bank to 

determine what its digital future will look like 

as well as to set clear business goals: increasing 

revenues, reducing costs and mitigating risks. 

Unfortunately, or fortunately, there is no single 

ready-made digital banking solution that can 

be implemented in every bank, and there is no 

single pass on digital transformation. Also, while 

making these decisions, it’s always useful to 

learn lessons from and see the examples of those 

who have already made some progress towards 

digital transformation. 

The Study is available at 


Scan QR code 

to download 

the full study 


5

COOPERATION WITH STARTUPS 

HOW BGŻ BNP PARIBAS BANK IN POLAND 

COOPERATES WITH STARTUPS 

BGZ BNP Paribas was the first bank in Poland to present 

a “Code for Cooperation with Startups” — changes that 

facilitate the Bank’s cooperation with new companies 

BGŻ BNP Paribas was the first bank 

in Poland to present a “Code 

for Cooperation with Startups” 

— changes that facilitate the Bank’s 

cooperation with new companies. From 

now on, startups that want to implement 

their solutions in the Bank, in accordance 

with the introduced “Code,” will do it much 

faster and more efficiently in cooperation 

with Bank experts and under the care of 

a dedicated mentor. As part of the “Code,” 

a simplified purchasing process for new 

technological solutions and templates 

for documents for the so-called Proof of 

Concept were implemented. 

“The business culture in corporations does not 

always create optimal conditions for effective 

cooperation with startups and the development 

of innovations. Tedious procedures and a 

long purchasing process are just some of the 

difficulties that startups interested in working 

with a corporation face. Having this in mind 

and knowing the specifics of new technology 

companies, we have simplified the purchasing 

process, created templates for the necessary 

documents, built a dedicated test environment 

and outlined the principles of future cooperation,” 

says Piotr Widacki, Managing Director at BGŻ 

BNP Paribas Bank. “Startups have a much better 

sense of customer needs. We are heading in 

this direction. I believe that the Code we have 

introduced will bring us even closer,” Widacki 

adds. 

The “Code for Cooperation with Startups” is 

a consequence of the Bank’s consultations 

with new companies that already cooperate 

with BGŻ BNP Paribas. However, bearing in 

mind the best application of good practices 

included in the Code, the Digital Transformation 

Team, managed by Piotr Widacki, will continue 

to consult with the startup environment on 

a regular basis, streamlining cooperation 

between the corporation and startups as much 

as possible. 

What does that mean in practice? 

We verify the technological 

needs of the Bank 

We review the Bank’s needs, identify priorities 

and define a business owner. Then we form a 

team and budget to implement the PoC (Proof 

of Concept). It consists of representatives of 

business and IT. Finally, we start communicating 

about the current need of the Bank. 

We connect business owners 

with startups 

For about two weeks we look for technology 

on the market (scouting), and interested 

startups are welcome to contact us at startupy@ 

bgzbnpparibas.pl. Then we help in preparing for 

future talks, and selected startups are invited to 

meet, including within the framework of Office 

Hours. We sign a non-disclosure agreement 

(NDA). During the session, each startup has 45 

minutes to address our needs. 

We work together 

on a solution (workshops) 

We continue to work with selected startups and 

organize workshops (6-8 hours) during which we 

work on finding solutions. Then we define the 

scope of work, the schedule, planned outcomes 

(description of the PoC), as well as the content 

and conditions of the order for the startup. 

Together, we complete the documents and help 

to complete them. We sign one of the simplified 

contract templates for Proof of Concept. 

We test the solution (PoC) 

In the fourth step, we test the chosen technology 

in the test environment (sandbox). We define 

the time that is needed to test the solution 

individually. We draw conclusions from the PoC 

and — if they are successful — we continue to 

work. We set business goals (KPIs) and specify 

the scope of further work. 

We implement the best solutions 

We verify security and compliance aspects with 

obligatory regulations and together create a socalled 

business case. We make a joint decision 

on the best payment model. We present the 

contract model to the startup and get to work. 

We care about relationships 

The Digital Transformation Team recruits startups. 

Each company we decide to cooperate with 

receives a dedicated mentor. We help startups 

navigate all steps of the process; we give clear 

and specific feedback. We assume that the 

process from Proof of Concept to implementation 

will be closed within a quarter (depending on the 

level of complexity of the technology and scope 

of its implementation in the Bank). 

Detailed information on the principles of 

cooperation between BGŻ BNP Paribas and 

startups can be found on the Bank’s website on the 

startup page (www.bgzbnpparibas.pl/startupy). 

Office Hours are part of a simplified purchasing 

process, during which Bank experts select 

the best startups from the market that have 

technological solutions we are interested in. 

To date, the Digital Transformation Team has 

organized seven events in the Office Hours 

series, during which experts looked at nearly 

one hundred solutions in the following areas: 

PSD2, antifraud, e-commerce for the moto 

industry, technologies for the agro sector and 

HR solutions. Startups that would like to take 

part in such events are invited to apply at 

startupy@bgzbnpparibas.pl 

Source: BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank 

press release of May 22, 2018 

6 


CIS & Caucasus 

SME Banking Report 2018 

SME Banking Outlook for CIS & Caucasus 

region and detailed analysis per countries: 

Armenia, Belarus, Georgia. Kazakhstan, 

Ukraine. Banking Groups Overview for CIS & 

Caucasus region in SME Banking segment 

Language — Russian 

CEE SME Banking Report 2018 

SME Banking Outlook for Central and Eastern 

Europe region and detailed analysis per countries: 

Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Hungary. Banking 

Groups Overview for CEE region in SME Banking 

segment 

Language — English 

Ask for your copy at cee@smebanking.club 


7

COOPERATION WITH STARTUPS 

RBL_: A NEW SPACE AND ACCELERATOR 

BY ALIOR BANK 

On September 12 this year, Alior 

Bank — in response to market 

trends and customer needs — 

opened a special space in which, together 

with startups from the fintech industry, the 

bank will implement new solutions under 

its RBL_START acceleration program. This 

space will also be used to carry out surveys 

on customer feedback and test new bank 

products and services. 

Alior Bank’s RBL_START program will last 

for three months. The program’s goal is to 

develop products and services appreciated 

by customers and supporting automation of 

the bank’s processes. The best solutions will 

be implemented at Alior Bank. During the 

acceleration program, startups will develop 

solutions in cooperation with bank mentors and 

external partners. In a specially designed space 

developed by the Robert Majkut Design studio 

in the Warsaw Spire building, startups, together 

with the bank’s clients, will be able to carry 

out tests of their solutions. There will also be 

workshops and mentoring on offer. Participants 

will also have access to a test environment 

with API services related to PSD 2 (Alior Bank’s 

Developer Portal). The partners of the program 

are PZU, the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Huge 

Thing, Mastercard, IBM, Google Cloud, Amazon 

and Microsoft. 

— One of the determinants of an innovative 

company is its ability to cooperate with startups. 

By implementing the bank’s RBL_START program, 

we will once again prove that “Digital Rebel” is not 

a cliché but a real commitment. After testing with 

blockchain technology and the Open API model, 

we are entering the next level of advancement: we 

want to develop solutions that will revolutionize 

the market — says Katarzyna Sułkowska, CEO at 

Alior Bank. 

Alior Bank successfully combines business and 

an unusual approach to technology. Together 

with the startup VoicePin, the bank successfully 

implemented the DRONN artificial intelligence 

solution, which supports certain processes 

within the bank, including monitoring of key 

During an official 

opening event in RBL_ , 

September 12, Warsaw (Poland) 

customers and higher-risk customers, ROR 

closing processes and dispatch of reminder 

letters as part of execution processes. Currently, 

“Digital Rebel” is in the process of creating a 

pan-European platform based on the Open 

API model in cooperation with Mastercard 

and foreign fintech companies: Raisin and 

solarisBank. 

With the start of the RBL_START program, 

Alior Bank introduced its new brand: RBL_. The 

purpose of the brand is to combine everything 

that is innovative, digital and fresh. Two entities 

operate under the RBL_ brand (short for REBEL): 

RBL_START — an acceleration program for 

startups, and RBL_LAB — a laboratory for work 

on technological solutions. 

8 


Innovations 

RBL_START 

It took over 80 days, more than 100 meetings 

and dozens of teleconferences to choose eight 

startups out of nearly 100 from around the world 

that applied for the RBL_START acceleration 

program within just one month. This difficult 

selection process was carried out by the 

managers and directors of the IT department 

and business units. This year’s edition bears the 

slogan ‘Open Banking’ because the profile of 

many startups that applied refers to this model. 

Among the startups that were accepted to the 

RBL_START program, various innovative solutions 

were found in the areas of, among others, account 

aggregation and expenditure categorization, 

robo-advisory, deferred payments, artificial 

intelligence and remote verification based on 

PSD2 and blockchain technology. 

“The Alior Bank Accelerator is a huge opportunity 

for startups. Their employees will acquire new 

competencies, the solutions presented by them 

will be developed in cooperation with mentors, 

and subsequently selected projects will be selected 

for implementation within the bank or within PZU, 

which is the main partner for this edition. However, 

that’s not all. Startups participating in the program 

can apply for business development financing from 

Alior Bank. We also plan a trip to London, during 

which our participants will have the opportunity to 

get acquainted with the local fintech market,” says 

Kamila Wincenciak, FinTech Partnership Manager 

at Alior Bank. 

RBL_ Space 

Modern space in the Warsaw Spire building 

is a place where, apart from the acceleration 

program, various workshops, meetings, events 

and research on the bank’s products and services 

will also be organized. These activities are made 

possible by a networking space and a special 

laboratory. 

In the separated space, Alior Bank has created 

one of the most modern laboratories in Poland 

intended for work on digital solutions, including 

research with users. RBL_LAB is a versatile, 

flexible place that is fully suited to the process 

of building innovation, with smart boards, video 

conferencing sets and cameras all provided for 

this purpose. The space’s creators were guided 

by the idea of an agile approach to projects, 

characterized by quick incorporation of the 

recommendations of users in the process of 

creating solutions. 

RBL_LAB is intended to host design workshops, 

during which specialists will develop practical 

solutions for the bank. Over the next few days, 

designers will visualize these ideas or prepare 

working prototypes. Final concepts will be 

presented during research with users. Thus kind 

of activity cycle will significantly reduce the time 

required for implementing solutions. It will also 

make it easier to identify ideas that are highly 

unlikely to meet the needs of customers. 

The laboratory will also be used to improve 

standard internal solutions, test new technologies 

and develop ideas proposed by employees. 

Thanks to modern technology, employees from 

the headquarters in Krakow and Gdansk will be 

able to participate in current activities remotely. 

“We want to continually improve our services 

and achieve an ever higher level of innovation — 

the RBL_ concept should help us do this. When 

preparing the space, we also thought about the 

market, which — just like us — wants to develop 

toward new technologies. This is why in the 

new office, apart from the accelerator and the 

laboratory, there will also be a networking space. 

Educational events and meetings for our customers 

will be organized there as well as internal events 

that will familiarize employees with the subject of 

innovation,” says Marcin Jaszczuk, Vice President 

of the Board at Alior Bank. 

Source: bank’s Press release 

from September 12, 2018 


9

OPINION 

What have we learned by developing 

the product in cooperation with users? 

Jelena Durovic 

Segment manager in the Marketing Division 

at Societe Generale Srbija 

By vocation, I am a specialist in the field of banking 

and finance. By experience, I am an expert for small 

business lending, marketing, and CRM with over 

15 years of engagement in the Serbian banking 

sector. By carrier goal, I am a digital transformation 

enthusiast eager to show that banking is not only 

about cash, queuing and figures but also about 

innovation, team spirit and partnership with 

clients, startups and other stakeholders that are 

on the same mission of changing the world. In 

essence, I am a true supporter of entrepreneurship. 

I’ll admit something ... the Special offer 

for freelancers-contractors, registered 

as lump-sum tax entrepreneurs, was 

not created on purpose. At least not at the 

beginning… 

The story about the development of SINHRO 

package is a fascinating one and a good 

example of how we should always be open to 

hear about new ideas and meet new people 

from different backgrounds and industries even 

when we have no clear expectations from those 

activities. Everything started with the SGS and 

ICT hub partnership contract. The initial idea 

was that we should foster a connection with the 

ICT community and interaction with startups to 

adopt some new advanced business principles 

and push for innovations in all fields, to work 

efficiently and purposefully. Of course, the 

idea was also to prepare a banking offer for the 

community that we were working with at that 

time. At that moment, all we saw were startups, 

so we began by focusing on them. We had many 

conversations and one-on-one meetings with 

representatives of this segment, which helped 

us learn about their challenges in Serbia, and 

not only concerning banking. The turning point 

was when we met Sofija Popara and her team 

from Clever DOO. They were already developing 

web application PAUSAL for easy administration 

of lump-sum tax entrepreneurs at the time, but 

still without MVP. 

Getting to know the community allowed us 

to understand what kind of problems they 

were facing. 

At the start of our cooperation, the initial idea 

was to enrich the general offer for the segment 

of lump-sum tax entrepreneurs, which was 

already a significant part of our client base. 

Nevertheless, in the meantime, we understood 

that there was also a specific sub-segment of 

clients whose needs were completely unserved 

on our banking market. They are freelancerscontractors 

that are registered as lump-sum 

tax entrepreneurs, and work mostly as experts 

in the fields of ICT and digital technologies, but 

also as lawyers and consultants in various areas 

of business. 

Their main problem is that, even though they 

have regular and significant revenues, banks 

don’t have an understanding of their flexible 

engagement in the companies they work for. In 

other words, they couldn’t think about applying 

for a mortgage or car loan because most of 

the banks require a permanent employment 

contract or reduce the amounts of potential 

loans by complying with the tax base. Anyway, 

not all the contractors are interested in loans 

right now, so besides Aspirin (loans) we also 

prepared Vitamins, which is just a way of saying 

we made some upgrades in our existing e/mbank 

applications to satisfy the daily banking 

needs of these clients. 

Now we have the opportunity to monitor and 

perform transactions on all of a client’s accounts 

in one location, no matter if they are personal 

or business accounts linked to their lump-sum 

tax entrepreneur entity. This is something we 

recognized as functionality that would mean 

a lot to this segment of clients, and it turned 

out to be the right thing to do as it was very 

well accepted in the community. After Aspirin 

and Vitamins, we added beneficiary usage of 

PAUSAL application and advantages of the 

digital bank that we launched a year before to 

the basket, and we had something that should 

be offered to the market as soon as possible. 

We consciously launched MVP and followed 

client reactions. 

We decided to launch SINHRO on February 7th, 

knowing that the package would continue to 

develop. Two months later, we introduced a 

new native m-banking application which also 

featured new SINHRO functionality so that 

at that moment all those advantages were 

available to clients even on the go. 

As time passed, we were more and more aware 

of the specific needs of clients in this segment 

and various models of their professional 

engagement, so with that knowledge we were 

also adapting to them and being more flexible. 

That is the essence of agile development. We 

are investigating the market, offering MVP that 

covers the basic needs to see whether clients 

will use the product, then follow the reactions 

with great interest and finally adapt in line 

with the feedback and upgrade our basic offer 

accordingly. 

The traditional way of creating products was 

gradually abandoned in the Serbian banking 

industry over the last ten years and so, in a 

10 


Innovations 

way, it led banks to be oriented towards clients 

and segments instead of products. Everyone 

understood that the client was the center of 

attention and that we needed to adjust the offer 

to their needs. 

From that perspective, we concluded that 

clients did not need some new generic banking 

products, but packages and conditions that 

were tailor-made to their lifestyle. 

And that is precisely what differentiates banks 

on the market today: the way they bundled 

the same generic products and how they 

communicate with different client segments. 

Internally in SGS, we spent more than five years 

developing our segmented approach, but 

naturally, the focus at the beginning was on 

those that were making the most of our client 

base – businesses. 

With time that picture changed, so we now have 

a much more complex scheme of segments that 

we identified and for which we have developed 

a dedicated offer. After a strategic decision 

to digitalize and innovate our business in 

subsequent years, we were heavily researching 

the market and, through interaction with the 

community that is most active in that field, we 

had the opportunity to meet more of those 

interesting segments which are now equal to 

those that have been in our catalogs for more 

than 40 years. 

We had startup partners. 

I have to admit that one project like this was 

not easy to manage. Teams and tasks were not 

clearly defined at the start, nor was the goal, 

which, as I explained, changed along the way. 

Co-creation with clients was the primary model 

of doing things, and on that front, we couldn’t 

have made it without the team from PAUSAL 

because they already had significant experience 

with that segment, apart from the fact that all 

of them were working for Clever as contractors 

and lump-sum tax entrepreneurs. That fact itself 

was jumping out of the box and the standard 

way of doing things since the package was 

developing together with our partnership with 

PAUSAL and Sofija Popara. 

We knew at that moment that we were on to 

something, but before finalizing the offer and 

taking on too many costs, we needed proof 

that our concept was accurate. We prepared the 

survey and distributed it through our startup 

partner network so that we could be sure 

that our focus group consisted of the specific 

clients that we were targeting. The survey 

The SINHRO package is a unique banking offer for independent experts/contractors and 

freelancers in Societe Generale Srbija. 

Targeted to entrepreneurs registered as lump-sum tax sole proprietors. The value proposition was 

developed through co-creation with clients, and our startup partner PAUSAL and its main features are: 

• Individual & Business banking account aggregation on one banking platform/app 

• Financing owners’ private needs 

• Benefits in using the PAUSAL partnership application 

• Other digital services developed the for retail segment 

Innovative elements of the SINHRO Package: 

• The first bank in Serbia to discover and address contractors as a new and growing segment of 

freelancers. Scan the QR code to watch the info-graphic about the segment, their needs and the 

main features of the package we offered 

• Successful co-creation with the startup ecosystem resulting both in the relevant offer and 

powerful market positioning 

• Establishing and proving that there is a win-win business model of bank/startup partnership - 

NEW – in May 2018 we launched SoGe PAY in PAUSAL, in-app payments integrated via API for all 

SGS clients of the SINHRO package 

was completed by 100 clients, and it gave us 

confirmation that we were on the right track. 

Teams in the bank were divided according to the 

elements of the offer so that one was working 

on loan conditions, another on developing 

dual packages, the third on developing e/mbanking 

application, the fourth on training 

issues and internal communication, external 

communication and so on. 

Managing those teams was even more 

challenging because the first task was taking 

the time for all the team members to get familiar 

with the new segment, and after that to explain 

the mission to make our banking offer easily 

recognizable. 

From unsatisfied client to beta tester. 

Not only was this product innovative in our bank, 

but it was also and continues to be a significant 

innovation on the entire market. Many outside 

of the community can’t understand fully the 

way this segment works. Bankers usually are 

not part of this community. Knowing that we 

couldn’t change that fact overnight, we decided 

to go slow, and start only with several branches 

in the two biggest cities where the population 

of this segment was the largest. 

We started as a pilot, with a group of 30 people 

with whom we worked intensively to ensure 

that the start of the SINHRO offer was also 

supported by a ready support team. 


11

PAUSAL 

Pausal is a fintech app for business 

management of a contractor on a daily 

basis, reducing administration and 

paperwork and all of the hurdles that come 

along with it. 

You can think of it as a virtual, automatic 

accountant for entrepreneurs, available 

24/7. 

Main features: 

1. E-invoice 

Issuing invoices, in domestic and foreign 

currencies, with an overview of all charged 

and unpaid invoices. This also includes saving, 

canceling, copying, printing and sending 

invoices to customers via email. 

At all times, users have access to their customer 

database, both domestic and foreign, which 

is used to generate customer information on 

every document automatically. 

2. Income 

Every invoice created is automatically 

generated in the Book of income, which is 

available for downloading and printing. 

The app tracks all of the relevant limits for 

turnover, making sure the contractor is 

maintaining this status and there are no 

changes in the business. 

3. Taxes 

The user is given an option to onboard the tax 

system, which is further analyzed by a team 

of professional accountants, and provided a 

solution for the relevant obligations. 

They also have an option of adding, managing, 

seeing an overview of and printing payment 

orders. 

These payment orders are used for transactions 

and are connected with a feature SoGe Pay that 

enables payment of these payment orders. 

4. Analytics 

It provides business analytics, which includes 

statistics (per payment, per customer), an 

overview of receivables, a comparative overview 

in the selected period, customer evaluation, the 

risk of exceeding limits based on past business 

turnover and export to an Excel file. 

SoGe Pay also provided corresponding statistics 

for all transactions and reports per expense type, 

the transaction period and customers that have 

been paid. 

Approximately 78% of our SGS users have 

executed a transaction by using the app and 

SoGe Pay at least once. 

The numbers are proof of success. SGS users 

invoiced around EUR 3,607,866 in 2017; in 2018, 

this figure increased to EUR 18,163,279, which 

is a perfect indicator of how this feature has 

affected the entrepreneur community. 

5. Health Insurance 

PAUSAL fills out the necessary forms for 

registering and canceling health insurance and 

informs when and how health insurance should 

be extended. 

6. My Company 

All data about the company and the owner are 

collected here. Once saved, data are used to 

generate all of the invoices, forms, documents 

and transfer orders. 

Additionally, it stores documentation, thus 

keeping everything that is relevant to the 

business in one place. 

7. Support 

The app provides email notifications to inform 

about the expiration of health insurance, 

changes in relevant laws, exceeded limits and 

tax payments and contributions. 

We also provide 24/7 support for the application, 

as well business consultancy. 

Moreover, as we expected, some beginner 

mistakes appeared very quickly and I mitigated 

even more rapidly to maintain credibility with 

our early adopters. The target group for our 

product were mostly young professionals, 

experts on programming of web and mobile 

applications and process designers... so they 

were very critical of our product. But every 

feedback we received was essential for us 

because it was highly constructive and in line 

our intention to enable all of those benefits and 

applicative functionalities that they were lacking 

in other banks. 

One interesting example was when we 

experienced a very unpleasant situation due to a 

bank process mistake, which was soon described 

in a Facebook post by an unsatisfied client. With 

active engagement in communication with our 

clients on social networks and an agile approach 

in problem-solving, we managed to solve this 

issue and invited this client to be a beta tester 

for future projects on the SINHRO package, 

which he gladly accepted. 

User comments mean more to us than any 

other research. 

Development is, on one hand, internally driven, 

because the bank is wholly devoted to the idea 

of digital transformation of its processes to be 

more efficient. On the other hand, it is essential 

to delegate people and other resources precisely 

to those projects that the market needs the most. 

SGS is increasingly involved in activities of the 

ICT community and we won’t change that trend 

for two reasons: first – that’s how we maintain 

contact with the source of entrepreneurial 

enthusiasm and innovations, and second – 

we maintain a source of information that is 

invaluable when it comes to development of 

our offer for this market segment. Open and 

informal conversation with some freelancer is 

valuable for us and a much better barometer 

of satisfaction than any other formal survey or 

research by a renowned company, which we 

will definitely use as well, but for other purposes. 

To sum up: without intensive cooperation with 

clients, this product wouldn’t exist at all, nor it 

would have any future. Most possibly, it wouldn’t 

even be called SINHRO, because that name was 

also chosen by our clients, even though it wasn’t 

a favorite among bankers. 

Jelena Đurović 

Segment manager in the Marketing Division at 

Societe Generale Srbija. 

12 


Innovations 

SANTANDER BANK POLSKA IN POLAND 

WILL SERVICE SMEs THROUGH VIRTUAL RMs 

Santander Bank Polska has launched a 

pilot project that will provide services to 

SME customers through virtual relationship 

managers (virtual RMs). 

T 

he project will enable entrepreneurs to quickly and conveniently 

contact a virtual RM by telephone or through a computer, 

laptop or tablet from anywhere in Poland and around the 

world. Virtual RMs can also offer access to more products that were 

previously unavailable through remote channels. 

— “The owners of small and medium-sized enterprises appreciate having quick 

access to banking services, as well as our individual approach to their needs. Our 

goal is to provide them with the best experience in both these areas, which is why 

we have been systematically developing and improving how they can contact 

us, as well as offering multichannel support. We are focused on making full use 

of the potential of remote channels and building long-lasting relationships with 

customers. We aim to ensure that entrepreneurs can always contact the same 

relationship manager, who will be informed about matters related to their 

business. As a result, we will not only shorten the time needed for customer 

service, we will also make corporate banking go even further,” says Michał 

Hackiewicz, Head of SME Digital at Santander Bank Polska. 

Through Bank’s virtual RM service, every SME customer will be assigned to a 

specific RM, who will be responsible for providing comprehensive customer 

service through remote channels. 

Thanks to virtual RMs, SME customers will also be able to benefit from 

expanded product offer available through remote channels. Among other 

things, RMs can help customers get a loan, open a new account, change their 

transaction limits in the online banking system, apply for a POS terminal or 

leasing, obtain any necessary certificates, and answer questions about the use 

of the transaction system, mobile app or payment cards. For customers who 

value direct contact with bank employees, virtual RMs can arrange a meeting 

at a Santander Bank Polska branch at a time that is convenient for the customer. 

Customers can contact a virtual RM quickly and easily using tools offering 

direct video or chat functions. In addition, Bank’s systems will automatically 

connect the customer with their dedicated RM once their identity is verified. 

Customers can also contact their virtual RM by e-mail. 

Source: Bank’s press release of May 11, 2018 

Extra Questions from SME Banking Club 

What is the primary target of the pilot? 

The primary goal of the pilot is to match the new 

customer service model to their expectations. 

We know from research and initial observations 

that over 75% of the selected group of 

customers would be happy to use remote 

services. 

The second important indicator is NPS. We 

expect that within six months, the percentage 

of customers who will recommend the bank 

and open business accounts with us will grow 

significantly. The predicted change in customer 

behavior is also essential, and will translate into 

increased activity in remote channels. 

How long will the pilot last? Is there any 

concrete end date? 

The pilot is divided into two parts — the first 

will last till the end of July, and the second until 

the end of November 2018. 

The press release states that each SME 

customer will be assigned to a specific RM. 

So we have two questions here: 

• How many customers are assigned to 

each Virtual RM? And how exactly is the 

assignment done? At the moment a customer 

contacts a Virtual RM or beforehand? 

Each Virtual Manager will have 3-times more 

customers in their portfolio than RM on the 

branch. RMs support selected regions in 

Poland corresponding to the current branch 

division, which means that we are based on 

regionalization. It’s crucial for RMs to know 

their customers, their needs. Regionalization 

will facilitate this task because the SME market 

is diversified and we see different behaviors 

in different regions. We are also considering 

differentiation by sector in the future. 

• How is it possible that one specific Virtual 

RM can serve a customer through remote 

channels that are available almost 24 hours 

each day? Or are Virtual RMs only available 

during working hours? 

Virtual RMs work similar hours as RMs at the 

branch. In the pilot, we test the service solution 

during working hours from 9:00 am to 6:00 

pm. However, we have already seen that 

some customers prefer to contact the Bank 

at different times. So, we will be flexible in 

meeting customer needs. 

Do you expect the profitability per SME 

customer to increase as the result of the 

virtual RM launch? What will the main 

drivers be in that respect? 

An increase in service satisfaction always 

translates into an increase in profitability from 

the services and products offered. First and 

foremost, the most important thing is to build 

relationships with customers and gain their 

Michał Hackiewicz, 

Head of SME Digital at Santander Bank Polska 

trust in the new RMs. Profitability will come 

after some time. For me, the primary indicator 

will be the number of incoming calls to Virtual 

RMs in available channels. This will mean that 

the customer, having the need, expects the RM 

to solve the problem from start to finish without 

unnecessary delay or sending the customer 

elsewhere. Many of these customers have 

pre-approved credit limits which, as everyone 

knows, are among the most profitable banking 

products. 


13

INNOVATIONS 

AN OFFER FOR MICRO AND SME SEGMENT 

AT ING BANK ROMANIA 

ING Bank, the sixth largest bank in the Romanian banking 

system in terms of assets, has recently launched several new 

products for its SME customers. 

The latest is an instant credit line, 

called ING SRL, which provides financing 

of up to lei 350,000 (EUR 76,000) to 

companies with a turnover from EUR 20,000 to 

EUR 2 million. 

The product is targeted to micro and small 

companies registered as limited liability 

companies (LLCs), for both existing customers 

as well as for new clients to the Bank. 

The credit line will be granted until further 

notice, with annual revision of financial standing 

of the companies, based on signed agreement 

to interrogate fiscal authority database. 

Pricing is similar to existing facilities granted to 

this segment and all-in margin may vary from 5 

to 10%, depending on financial standing of the 

company. 

The product is available instantly due to 

automated checks via ANAF (tax authority) 

databases, the Credit Risk Center, the Payment 

Incident Center (for companies), and the Credit 

Bureau (for Associates, Administrators and the 

Sole Entrepreneurs), as well as other instant 

checks in any ING Bank branch. 

“This new verification algorithm will become the 

standard process for assessing credit applications 

of all kinds for micro and small companies. 

Practically, the external verification algorithm 

underlying each evaluation process will be 

applied to any credit file from now on, thus 

reducing the response time and money transfer 

to the customer account,” said Maria Cenusa, Tribe 

Lead for Micro-Companies at ING Bank Romania. 

Today, credits are granted within at least 1 ½ -2 

weeks. With the new analysis model, the loan is 

granted within a few minutes. 

“The value of the product is not that they receive 

an instant loan, but the convenience we offer to 

our customers, which avoid the hassle of bringing 

lots of documents, coming several times to the 

bank for follow-up, etc.,” Cenusa said. 

Bogdan Boteanu, Deputy General Manager 

of ING Bank Romania and Head of Mid-Corporate Banking 

A customer can receive the credit line ING SRL 

in two ways: 

1. One single visit: customers can go with all the 

process at any ING Bank branch 

2. To apply online via the bank website, fill in 

the required information and submit it. An 

ING consultant will contact the applicant 

quickly to confirm the application. Then, the 

customer should visit the ING branch of their 

choice to complete the credit application and 

sign the loan documentation. 

14 


Innovations 

Every month, the customer should repay 10% of 

the credit line limit, as well as the accumulated 

interest and administration fee. The limit is 

replenished the next day. 

The collateral for the loan is a pledge on the 

customer’s current account at ING Bank, plus 

the personal guarantee of all shareholders with 

at least 25% of the shares. 

“ING Bank’s strategy is to provide a better, 

distinctive experience to its customers. And 

this means listening to them better, seeing 

what they need today and anticipating what 

they will need tomorrow. And what we have 

noted for the SME segment is that people need 

time to balance their personal and professional 

life. They need to remain in control of their 

business wherever they are, at any time,” said 

Bogdan Boteanu, Deputy General Manager of 

ING Bank Romania and Head of Mid-Corporate 

Banking. 

In addition to the credit line, ING Bank Romania 

offers instantly to small companies the current 

account, debit card and credit card (ING Business 

Credit Card). 

At the end of 2017, ING Romania entered 

the credit card market with a micro-business 

product, the ING Business Credit Card, 

which can be issued in any ING Bank’s branch 

to clients regardless if they already have or not 

a history with ING. The credit card limit is lei 

35,000 without the need to provide additional 

documents and is guaranteed with pledge on 

current accounts. The credit card can be granted 

on the spot, without financial documents, 

and the card can be picked up any time at the 

branch, or within a few days if the customer 

applies for an embossed card. 

In 2018, ING Bank Romania launched ING 

Business, an omni-channel online banking 

platform, dedicated to Mid-Corporate Banking 

customers, companies with a turnover of 

between EUR 0.5 Mio to EUR 100 Mio. Through 

ING Business, business customers have 24-hour 

access to all banking products and services, 

accessible from any desktop, laptop, tablet, 

smartphone or smartwatch. 

The ING Business system for the Romanian 

market is implemented based and adapted on 

the ING Business platform launched earlier at 

ING Bank Śląski in Poland. 


15

INTERVIEW 

SMEs tend to opt for leased fleets 

Marcin Balicki, 

CEO at Millennium Leasing 

(Poland) 

Olena Gryniuk talked to Marcin Balicki, CEO at Millennium 

Leasing (Poland), about the development of the leasing 

market in Poland and how Millennium Leasing approaches 

SME customers. 

volume and 18.9% in terms of value), heavy 

road transport (39.4% in terms of volume and 

46.5% in terms of value) as well as machinery 

and equipment (21.8% in terms of volume and 

30.8% in terms of value). 

How many of your leasing deals 

are you concluding with SME 

customers? 

This year more than 35% of our business 

(understood as new leasing agreements) comes 

from customers in the SME sector. However, it is 

worth pointing out that we’re experiencing an 

increasing trend within this scope, due to the 

fact that for a number of years we have been 

developing our operations in the SME and Micro 

sectors by transferring transaction execution 

and transparency of terms standards to those 

sectors from the corporate segment, where 

we’ve always had a strong presence. 

What equipment do SMEs buy and what is 

the main leasing product they choose? 

When it comes to Millennium Leasing, 

the structure of agreements concluded by 

companies from the SME sector is quite 

balanced. The largest share is attributable to 

vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes (37.5% in terms of 

This August, Millennium Leasing announced 

the signing of a loan agreement with EBRD 

under the PolGEFF project (Polish Green 

Economy Financing Facility), the main part 

of which should be granted to SMEs for 

investments related to energy efficiency or 

renewable energy. What are the projects 

that you will consider and how many SMEs 

you plan to finance under that project? 

Our commitment to financing energy saving 

investments goes back years. We have been 

taking part in various programmes (such 

16 


Interview 

as PolSeff ) and we’ve also established our 

own product lines. Leasing EkoEnergia is one 

such product, where, using our own funds, 

we provided co-financing for investments in 

energy-saving machines to our customers. 

And we do not only perceive these actions as 

favourable from a CSR perspective — they are 

also thoroughly justified from a business point 

of view. Essentially, such investments do more 

THIS YEAR MORE THAN 35% OF OUR 

BUSINESS (UNDERSTOOD AS NEW 

LEASING AGREEMENTS) COMES FROM 

CUSTOMERS IN THE SME SECTOR 

than just contribute to a reduction in energy 

costs: frequently, nowadays when we are 

experiencing increasing problems associated 

with availability of qualified staff, they allow 

our customers to sidestep this barrier. The 

agreement with EBRD concluded this year is 

yet another step in that direction. The PolGeff 

programme assumes financing of a wide 

range of investments associated with energy 

efficiency or renewable energy, encompassing 

investments associated with improving the 

energy efficiency of buildings, investments in 

equipment, systems and processes which lead to 

significantly improved efficiency in terms of the 

consumption of energy, water and raw materials, 

as well as investments which promote the use 

of renewable energy sources. Within the above 

scope, we provide an opportunity to employ 

leasing financing wherever it is feasible, taking 

into account the purchased assets. We are not 

guided by quantitative targets (understood as 

the number of companies who take advantage 

of the programme), but rather we are looking to 

make use of the entire available amount of PLN 

300 million as quickly as possible. I think it will be 

possible to achieve that by the end of the year. 

What is the process for SME customers to 

get a lease deal with Millennium Leasing? 

How long does it take from the very 

beginning to signing the agreement? 

Processes, their transparency, usability for a given 

organisation and duration are some of the major 

competitive factors today. The leasing agreement 

conclusion process is diverse not only on account 

of the customer segment, but also due the type 

of asset to be financed, the 

cooperation history we have and 

the overall amount committed to 

financing. 

For most leasing transactions 

in the SME segment, we are 

able to provide a financing 

decision within seconds. For 

a number of reasons, such 

a radical reduction of the 

time required to complete 

the subsequent stages is not 

as simple. Firstly, pursuant 

to Polish legal regulations, a 

leasing agreement is invalid 

unless drawn up in writing. 

Secondly, executing a leasing 

transaction, as opposed to 

a loan, entails more than a 

simple financial operation 

— it requires an interaction with the asset 

supplier (conclusion of an agreement and its 

verification, insurance of the subject of the 

lease, and for vehicles — registration with 

vehicle licensing authorities). However, these 

processes can also be accelerated. Results we 

can be proud of include doubling efficiency 

(the volume of transactions per back office 

staff member) and reducing the time required 

to complete certain types of transactions by 

between 20 and 50%. 

Which steps of that process are digitalised? 

The process for credit decisions for a 

significant share of transactions in the Micro 

and SME segment is fully digital (with the 

exception of entering basic customer data 

and information on the leased asset). Other 

areas where we are introducing digitalisation 

primarily lie within the sphere of internal 

processes aimed at improving efficiency. 

For customers, this means waiting times for 

completing transactions are reduced. We 

believe that digitalisation is a process that 

has to be sustainable and well thought out. 

In this case, sustainability means that we have 

to ensure a smooth process for transactions 

initiated within mass distribution channels. 

Ease of access to leasing and credit decisions 

has to go hand in hand with satisfactory 

operational efficiency. 

We talked about digitalisation in the 

leasing industry last year (read the 

interview in SBB Magazine, September 

2017). What has changed on the Polish 

market during this year? Have new 

initiatives appeared since then? 

There is always a feeling that more could 

have been done; however, looking back on 

the last year — we have plenty to be proud 

of. Independent of projects completed by 

various firms, the Polish Leasing Association’s 

digitalisation group meets on a regular basis. 

I do believe that we will shortly commence 

a joint project on structured invoices. In 

April this year we also organised the first 

E-Leasing Day conference, with Minister 

Anna Streżyńska in attendance, during which 

the possible development directions were 

discussed among individuals responsible for 

IT, processes and products from all the major 

leasing companies in Poland. We also had an 

opportunity for an in-depth discussion with IT 

systems and solutions providers. 

What do you think the near future holds 

for the development of the leasing market 

in Poland? 

Changes in regulations pertaining to leasing 

announced by the Ministry of Finance have 

caused a lot of uncertainty. It is difficult to 

predict how these will affect the leasing 

market. Certainly passenger vehicles are such 

a significant part of it that these changes will 

have a major impact on next year’s statistics. 

From the point of view of Millennium Leasing, 

we are not overestimating hypothetical risks 

associated with the new regulations. Our 

observations suggest that for years leasing 

has ceased to be used as a tax reduction 

instrument by customers and has become a 

method for financing investments on par with 

loans. And within that scope, the attractiveness 

of leasing, the ease of obtaining it and the 

support which customers can expect to receive 

in negotiating with suppliers remain stable. 

All these advantages mean that apart from 

temporary turbulence in the vehicle financing 

segment, leasing should continue to grow at 

double-figure rates. 


17

INTERVIEW 

mBank’s Ecosystem for SME customers 

Olena Gryniuk talked to 

Piotr Teodorczyk, director 

of the Business Customer 

Department at mBank 

(Poland), about creating 


and the way mBank 

approaches SMEs. 

Piotr Teodorczyk, director of the Business 

Customer Department at mBank (Poland) 

started his work at mBank in 2005 as a 

relationship manager for business customers at 

the MultiBank branch. 

He is a graduate of MBA studies for financiers 

at Kozminski University and completed doctoral 

studies at the Collegium of Management and 

Finance at the Warsaw School of Economics. 

Proving himself a successful leader, he created 

and implemented SME initiatives within the 

framework of the One Bank Strategy. He is an 

ambassador of empathy and client-centricity. 

Knowledge, experience, and attention to 

customer needs are the foundations on which he 

builds his strategy. 

Who are your SME customers (in 

terms of revenue, sector, age, 

etc.)? 

Our client base is mainly made up of micro and 

small enterprises, run as sole proprietorship 

businesses. mBank’s SME accounts are 

particularly popular in the professional, 

e-commerce and retail industries. 67% of our 

new clients from 2018 are people aged 31. 

However, we also noticed a gradual increase 

in entrepreneurship among people under the 

age of 30. mBank’s clients are independent 

and value convenience — almost half of 

them applied for a company account via 

remote channels (internet, contact center). 

What’s more, over 1/4 of all company account 

agreements were concluded remotely in 2018. 

Piotr Teodorczyk, 

Director of the Business 

Customer Department at mBank 

(Poland) 

18 


Interview 

You have a whole 

ecosystem for SME 

customers within the 

bank, starting from the 

very first step: customers 

can start a business with 

you, taking advantage of 

mPower Business Starter, 

which allows businesses 

to be registered via 

the bank’s website, 

then to automatically 

open current account 

and deliver all banking 

products online to 

providing accounting 

services to the customers. 

Could you please tell us 

in more details about the 


within mBank? 

The main idea behind the 

ecosystem is to help new 

entrepreneurs with the 

challenges they face in their 

daily lives. We want to allow 

them to concentrate on their core business 

and take from their shoulders the most difficult 

aspects of managing a company. Naturally, 

the accounting system comes to mind 

first of all, since the accountant is the most 

important person cooperating with a new 

businessperson. It’s crucial for a company to be 

able to entrust its accounting to a trustworthy 

and competent person. But how do you find a 

suitable accountant? How can an entrepreneur 

know that a given accounting service is 

reliable? Young businesspeople have to find 

answers to these questions, because the whole 

company is at stake. Thanks to mAccounting, 

entrepreneurs don’t have to worry about 

that, as mBank provides them with complex 

accounting assistance without them having to 

leave the house. 

What’s more, entrepreneurs don’t have to 

deliver any invoices or any other documents 

to the accounting office, since the accountant 

has access to all the necessary information 

through the mBank’s system, which means 

fewer mistakes and misunderstandings. 

Another advantage of mAccounting is the fact 

that the accountant communicates with the 

client through Task Center — mBank’s calendar 

for entrepreneurs. The accountant creates a 

task within Task Center, and the client receives 

a push notification on their smartphone. It 

takes only three clicks to pay tax or social 

insurance, since the accountant fills out all 

the necessary information, and the client only 

has to accept the transaction. As a result, they 

save precious time and enjoy guaranteed and 

consistent service quality. 

For the vast majority of our clients with 

sales-based business, points of sale are an 

essential part of their work. In Poland, noncash 

payments are an every-day reality, and 

for that reason stores that don’t accept credit 

cards or another form of mobile payment are 

at a disadvantage. To support them, mBank, 

in cooperation with the Cashless Poland 

Foundation, offers POS devices for up to 24 

months free of charge in order to provide new 

entrepreneurs with a smooth start. 

Last, but not least, I have to underline that 

mBank’s clients have the opportunity to 

exchange currencies via online banking 24 

hours a day, seven days a week. Moreover, 

they can deal with official matters also through 

mBank’s online system. As you can see, mBank 

is building an ecosystem that will allow 

entrepreneurs to take care of the vast majority 

of their tasks through their smartphone 

or computer, because we care about our 

customers and, what’s more, their time. This 

will not be the last of our ecosystem products 

since we aim to expand the assistance we 

provide into other areas of business in order to 

help our customers devote themselves to their 

passion and vision rather than spend time on 

red tape. 

Do you track how many (or what 

percentage) of your new customers you 

acquired due to mPower Business Starter? 

As expected, the mPower Business Starter 

initiative turned out to be crucial for the 

increase in sales of business accounts in 2018 

and started a revolution in the process of 

opening business operations. mPower Business 

Starter enables a company to be launched by 

the mBank system via the internet, CC or inbranch 

within just a few minutes. This idea 

came from our customers, who showed us the 

difficulties they face and indicated that there 

are hundreds of questions and thousands of 

answers about how to start up a company. At 

mBank, we wanted them to feel happy upon 

starting a new chapter of their lives by opening 

their own company. As our statistics show 

— 22% of our monthly acquisition of SME 

accounts was generated thanks to mPower 

Business Starter. We believe that our market 

shares will increase in new SME account 


19

acquisition thanks the fact we have such a 

powerful engine that does everything in the 

background on our customers` behalf. 

How many of your customers come to 

you via digital channels and how many 

through local branches? 

We have noticed a systematic increase in the 

importance of remote channels in terms of 

the acquisition of new clients. In the last three 

years, the number of applications submitted 

online and via the CC increased by 6%. 

Currently, only 55% of all applications for SME 

accounts are submitted via local branches. The 

Internet plays a key role: 34% of all applications 

for company accounts at mBank are submitted 

online. 

You have a lending product available for 

SMEs via your mobile app. Please tell us 

more about that: who are your target 

customers, what is the average amount, 

and how quick are decisions made? 

What is the percentage of applications 

for that loan compared to all incoming 

applications for SME loans? 

Yes, we offer online lending for our existing 

SME customers. Our focus is to deliver the best 

possible experience for our customers also in 

terms of lending. Our target customers for fast 

online lending are, as I said before, our existing 

customers with transactions in our bank. We 

provide those customers with credit products 

via modern digital channels (mobile and 

internet banking); our average loan amount 

is around EUR 3,500, and our decision process 

takes on average less than five minutes. Our 

online channels account for 10% of all of our 

sales in terms of NML lending for SMEs. And 

that number is growing! Our customers like and 

prefer to use mobile channels because they 

offer a fast lending process that enables them 

to react quickly to investment opportunities 

that arise in their everyday business dealings, 

and they also help them build a competitive 

advantage with mBank’s support. 

mBank has already been providing 

accounting services for SME customers 

for three years now (the service is called 

mAccounting), which includes both 

automated accounting for entrepreneurs 

and support from human accountants 

for bigger companies. Which part of your 

customer base uses mAccounting? What 

role does this service play in acquiring new 

customers or retaining existing ones? 

Currently, approximately 60,000 mBank 

customers have access to the mAccounting 

system. From among our newly acquired 

customers, more than 30 % opt for this product, 

and in the mPower Business Starter scenario, 

that percentage reaches nearly 60%. The 

numbers speak for themselves. mAccounting 

is intuitive to use and, most importantly for 

entrepreneurs, is a time-saving solution. In a 

today’s quickly developing world, people need 

solutions that will reduce the amount of work 

they have to do, and mAccounting fits this 

concept perfectly. Due to this fact, it is not 

surprising that this product attracts a large 

number of new customers. 

What innovations for SME customers 

should we expect from mBank in the near 

future? 

A few weeks ago we started cooperation with 

the Allegro Group, which means that seller 

who use Allegro as a platform to sell their 

products will also see and use mBank products 

via the seller’s panel. Basically, it means that we 

are setting out to find new SMEs on the market, 

and we will do that by being closer to them 

and their everyday business. We are not trying 

to sell them a product; our approach is based 

on relations. We want to be there for them 

when they need us. Also, for us, this is a new 

opportunity in the SME sector. We are building 

innovations (like credit API for Allegro) in order 

to be closer in terms of relations with customers 

and their needs under the B2B model. mBank is 

not only accessible via mBank.pl — we are also 

available via the mobile phone app, and we 

now also have a presence within the Allegro 

seller’s panel. From our customers’ perspective 

— when business grows mBank is always here 

for you to help realize your dreams and be fast, 

flexible and always mobile as business owners 

in those times are. 

20 


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INTERVIEW 

Achieving Competitive Advantage 

through Fact-based management 

in SME Banking 

Olena Gryniuk talked to 

Adam Jano, Head of 

Business Support & Sales 

Development at Budapest 

Bank (Hungary) 

Adam Jano, 

Head of Business Support & Sales 

Development at Budapest Bank 

What is the business model of 

Budapest Bank Business? How 

many RMs do you have around 

the country? 

Budapest Bank was established in 1987. Today, 

it is one of the top 8 major commercial banks 

and a well-established brand on the Hungarian 

market. We provide financial services to both 

consumer and commercial clients. Budapest 

Bank Business is the bank division that 

deals mainly with small and medium sized 

enterprises (SME). Together with our leasing 

subsidiary — one of the country’s leading 

asset leasing companies — we provide a full 

range of SME products for our clients. The 

bank’s nationwide network consists of some 

100 branches for consumer clients and 21 

SME hubs with more than 130 Relationship 

Managers (RMs) across the country. Our 

strengths are personalized services and deep 

knowledge of the Hungarian SME market. 

Thanks to a stable relationship with our 

partners, and our predictable and consistent 

business policy toward clients, Budapest Bank 

Business has been continuously increasing 

its stock of SME loans — even during the 

shrinking commercial lending market some 

years ago. 

The digitization of the Customer 

Relationship is one of the pillars of digital 

transformation. What do you think about 

that? And what is your model for working 

with SME customers? 

While products and services for consumer clients 

and micro enterprises are mostly standardized 

and processes can be easily digitalized, with 

respect to commercial lending, we believe that 

personal interactions will not be devalued in 

the near future, as SME products and services 

must remain customized in order to meet client 

needs. There are some simple services that can 

also be digitalized, but the main processes are 

based on strong relationship management and 

a deep understanding of the client’s business 

model with the aim of providing the best and 

most suitable banking solutions. A company, 

for example, that is planning to expand its sales 

to a foreign market or build a new factory unit 

requires huge and complex transactions with 

a great deal of negotiation and analysis that 

needs to be done highly competently, as well as 

close partnership between the client and bank. 

So digitalization and artificial intelligence 

will not replace SME bankers in the near 

future. Where can it help then? 

22 


Interview 

WITHOUT DATA, YOU ARE 

SIMPLY ANOTHER PERSON 

WITH AN OPINION BUT 

AT MOST COMPANIES 

DECISIONS ARE STILL BASED 

ON INTUITION OR SENIOR 

EXPERIENCE 

Digital channels play a very important role in 

client relationship management. Alternative 

channels are acting as the lengthened arm 

of the RM in order to help target and contact 

new clients, and maintain contacts with 

existing clients. Transformation not only has 

an effect on banking product and services 

but also on internal processes. When it comes 

to digitalization, we believe that large sales 

oriented organizations can only be managed 

effectively with a successfully applied 

‘fact based’ and data driven management 

approach. 

What are the key steps to becoming factbased 

in sales management? 

Without data, you are simply another person 

with an opinion 1 but at most companies 

decisions are still based on intuition or senior 

experience. Transformation and data driven 

decision-making is not only a question of 

technology. It also requires cultural and 

organizational change on all levels. There is 

no point in gathering and visualizing data on 

fancy dashboards and tons of reports until the 

company applies them to transform processes 

and business strategies. 

What is your fact-based approach at 

Budapest Bank Business? 

Our approach is very similar to modern sport 

analytics as most of the concepts they use can 

be applied to modern sales management too. 

We invested heavily into modern data processing 

and analytics tools to capture and visualize all the 

available data across our business. This enables 

us to monitor customer journeys and sales force 

productivity through the whole business process 

so we can step in if necessary. 

Our services are constantly monitored in 

line with rigorous Critical to Quality (CTQ) 

requirements in order to deliver high-quality 

products and services. Player (RM) profiling 

helps us to identify what our top 10 percent is 

doing differently so that we can increase sales 

force effectiveness among the other 90 percent. 

In depth analysis of client transactional habits 

and predictive analytics help us ‘feed’ our RMs 

with valuable client insights, e.g. potential next 

best offers, disloyalty alerts or suitable entry 

points for prospects. 

Our ‘one-screen’ method allows us to follow 

all important data through one platform with 

a pyramid design. The most important data 

can be viewed on informative dashboards for 

each specific business role, and one can always 

dig down to the next layer, all the way down 

to detailed analytics. This way we can reduce 

the time spent reading data to a minimum. 

Automating by designing a self-service 

reporting tool enabling every function to reach 

the required data allows our data scientists to 

deal only with complex questions. 

Last but not least, we are working hard at all 

levels of the organization to define how we 

interpret and use information, so that our coworkers 

speak the same language. This is a 

critical element in our corporate culture. 

1 

W. Edwards Deming 


23

INTERVIEW 

Automation of factoring services for SMEs 

Olena Gryniuk met Daniel Huszar in Warsaw this May. This talk is about technology and the 

automation of factoring services for SMEs. 

Before we start talking about technology, please tell us about 

yourself: what is your pass to efcom and what exactly do you 

do? 

I’ve been connected to efcom and working for efcom for over ten years 

now. I started out translating the system into English, so I know the depth 

of the system very well. It’s a good place to start out. My job as Head of 

Sales doesn’t really encapsulate what I do completely, because my job is, 

of course, to sell and to provide consultation for clients on which solutions 

might work for them. But also, I look into future technologies as well as the 

ones which we have right now and which drive product development. I 

also think about future applications, which I think is why you invited me. 

Let’s start with the question of automation of factoring, especially 

for SMEs, and probably mainly micro companies. As we see in the 

CEE region, although not only here, banks are mainly specialised in 

factoring for corporate customers. This is mainly due to the fact that 

these big organisations have manual processes for that product, and 

of course because servicing SMEs in such a way is very costly and 

insufficient for their needs. So, to serve SMEs and micros, the process 

needs to be automated as much as possible. This is what we see on 

the Polish market, where some Fintechs have appeared recently that 

are focused on the micro factoring segment; they offer factoring 

purely online in just a few minutes. So, it’s evident that automation 

makes sense for that segment of customers; the question isn’t why 

we need to automate, but rather how. So, my question is — how can 

or should banks automate? What might the exact process be? 

First of all, if we go into the micro sector and SME sector with a manual 

process, we don’t get so much more money from each individual client 

as for example in the corporate world. So, yes, there is really a need to 

automate. With manual processes versus automation – automation makes 

things scalable, which is very important with the SME and micro-segment. 

24 


Interview 

Because we have a lot of customers and because 

it’s hard if we have manual processes connected 

to all of them, when we onboard them and 

manage them, we need to automate, because 

then it’s not scalable. And perhaps when we are 

dealing with corporates, in the case of invoice 

discounting or factoring products, we don’t 

have a large number of clients but we do have a 

large number of invoices, and we kind of need to 

automate in order to get them into the system, 

to manage the limits and to manage the risks. 

So, we need automation, and to do this we have 

two technologies: we have the front-end, which 

is an online portal or an app, something like that, 

and this is the face of the technology that the 

customer sees, and then we have the back-end, 

which is where you crunch all those numbers, 

make all those postings, track the invoices and 

track your risks, for example. I’ll start with the 

front-end and what we can do there. I think, 

with front-end, the design is the most important 

thing, and it’s not really about automation here 

but getting the customer onboard so that they 

want to interact with your solution and so that 

they really want to use it, because without 

that, there is no product to use. To do this, we 

definitely need to shape it from the mobile, and 

by this I mean make it really simple to use, make 

it easy to upload invoices or documents and to 

make requests and all those kinds of things, and 

give users multiple opportunities to interact 

with your technology and your product. And 

when the automation comes into play, it’s more 

about customer convenience. When I talk about 

a multichannel approach and multiple ways 

to interact with your software, it’s more about 

‘do I type in this invoice manually or do I take a 

picture and then get some OCR software to read 

out what is written on that picture and translate 

it into the fields?’ Customer convenience 

definitely plays a more important role here 

than even automation. It just needs to be easy 

and simple. With respect to the back-end, the 

most important thing is flexibility. It has to be 

possible for all of your business processes to be 

translated into the software’s parameters, which 

are really the rules by which things should be 

automated — for example, which invoices 

do you buy, which clients do you onboard 

according to severe ratings? So those are the 

most important parts. 

What are the most important or crucial 

steps for banks or factoring companies 

when it comes to automation? 

DH: Firstly, I’d really urge every product manager 

that conceptualises their product to completely 

step away from the tools that they’re currently 

using, because they kind of limit the way we 

think, and the product shapes itself after the 

tools we use and it’s hard to get different ideas 

or see things from a different perspective. So, if 

you are making a new product for SMEs, let your 

imagination run wild. Not too wild of course. 

Think of everything, and then we can confine it 

to the product. First, of course, we need to see 

business cases, if feasible. This would be step 1 

for me, to get this concept. And step 2 would 

be to translate this into the technology, i.e. to 

make the front-end tool easy to use, to have this 

multichannel approach that allows the customer 

to interact with you on many different levels. For 

example, as I mentioned, this could be entering 

invoices using various methods: by taking a 

picture, typing them in. And the customer’s 

convenience is key. For the back-end, the most 

important thing is the way you automate things, 

the way you translate your business processes 

into the software parameters – that’s basically 

it. You take whatever rules you have in mind, 

like which invoices to buy, which customers to 

take, which customers to reject, how to set your 

limits, and you kind of think about what your 

risk appetite is here, because without risk we 

can’t do this. We have to take some spread, we 

have to take some risks, and we are not getting 

everything covered by credit insurance. 

Do you understand automation to mean 

that all processes are done by machines 

or robots without any human touch or 

involvement? 

This is an interesting question. I don’t think so. 

It’s not that it’s dangerous, but it doesn’t need 

to be that way. Of course, automation means 

that things are run automatically, but when 

we look at certain risks, if you have hundreds 

of thousands of customers or invoices, then 

nobody can look over all of these, and you need 

pre-defined decisions, but you need to look at 

some of them and you need to look at where 

risks are most likely to occur. This is what big 

data risk management is for, so you put it all in 

Scan QR code to listen to this interview 

on the SME Banking Club Podcast Series 

and you let the technology run its assessments 

according to some predefined rules, checking 

your invoices, checking your customers against 

patterns. For example, if you can look at the 

invoices and invoice numbers, and you can 

check if there’s a pattern that can be flagged. So 

in the end, when we apply all these parameters 

to our data and we think there might be a risk, 

like the Bedford model, and patterns and all 

these kinds of things, then the risk manager will 

get a proposal list and, rather than look at every 

invoice or every client, they will get the best 

clients according to the business rules set within 

the software, and then they can see which 

clients or invoices need to be checked up on the 

most. Basically, automation can also mean that 

humans use their time in the most efficient way 

possible. Automation should serve humans and 

users, not vice versa, of course. It’s just a tool. To 

make sure that it’s not a black box, I believe there 

are two factors that really help. I mentioned that 

we translate business processes into parameters 

so that the software, when you automate it 

according to the business rules that the bank 

and we as a software company implemented 

in the first place, does exactly what you want 

it to do. So it’s just a process enhancer: it takes 

business rules and applies them over and over, 

and quicker. But it is what we tell the software 

to do. And the second thing which is very 

important is that we need to be able to analyse 

all the data that goes in, and what we at efcom 

do to ensure that is save everything at invoice 

level, so every invoice and every credit note, 

every item that goes in there, stays within the 

database and can be analysed upon reporting 

even years later. That is really important when 

it comes to shaping your portfolio, monitoring 

it over time and even having the possibility of 

creating reports or dashboards later on, which 

are things that you might not think of right now, 

because they represent future products. And 

that’s a very important factor, in my opinion — 

that you are able to do that. 

Well, that’s good news that humans will still 

be somehow involved in the process. 

I think so too! 


25

EVENT 

For the fourth time, SME 

Banking Club gathered SME 

Bankers in Tbilisi (Georgia) 

at the Caucasus SME 

Banking Club Conference 

devoted to financial services 

for SMEs in that region. 

More than 70 attendees from 

12 countries and 39 financial 

organizations took part in this 

year’s conference. 

Pre-conference day on May 17 was devoted 

to onsite visits to 3 Georgian bank branches 

where SME customers are serviced. In 2016, 

Terabank was the first bank in Georgia to open 

a co-working branch for SME customers called 

Business Hub. The new concept for the bank’s 

branches is to provide something of a domestic 

environment for clients, where the interior is 

arranged like a home: with a fireplace, comfy 

furniture, and beautiful photos. 

Bank of Georgia is the only bank in Georgia 

which promotes SMEs in its new branches. 

On pre-arranged corners, the Bank presents 

Maya Margie Younes, Head of the Marketing Group at BLC 

Bank (Lebanon), shared the way her bank implemented 

non-financial services for SMEs and about women 

entrepreneurship in Lebanon. 

customer products, helping them to network 

and gain greater recognition. 

TBC Bank services all customers at their branches 

with a separate zone for business and TBC Status 

customers. 

During the main conference day on May 18, 

speakers shared their experiences ad best 

practices in servicing SMEs. 

26 


Event 

For TBC Bank (Georgia), 

SME Banking is a whole 

ecosystem that does not 

only involve lending to SMEs 

or opening current accounts. 

Tamuna Zhizhilashvili, 

Deputy Director of 

Marketing Communications 

& Business Banking at TBC 

Bank (Georgia), talked about 

this during the SME Banking 

Strategy Panel. 

Sergey Shevkunov 

(Belgasprombank, Belarus) 

talked about his experience 

in implementing internet 

banking for SMEs. 

Andrey Gidulyan 

(SME Banking Club) 

presented Online 

and Mobile Banking 

Studies. 

Laila Nurkassymova, 

Head of the SME 

Department at ATF 

Bank (Kazakhstan) 

presented her Bank’s 

business model on 

working with SME 

customers. 

During the Digital SME 

Banking Panel, Zviad 

Tsotskolauri (TBC Bank, 

Georgia) presented his 

Bank’s digital vision and 

strategy. 

Dmitriy Cherepakhin 

from bNesis (Ukraine) 

talked about nontraditional 

sources of 

data to acquire SME 

customers. 

Michal Pawlik (CEO and Co-founder at SMEO) shared 

his experience at SMEO with financing Polish SMEs 

purely online and how a partnership between 

traditional financial organizations and fintechs can 

lead to future growth. 

Scan QR code 

to view more 

photos from the 

Caucasus18 


27

CAUCASUS18 INSIGHTS & TAKEAWAYS 

Access to knowledge and networking are 

the primary needs of small businesses 

During the Caucasus18 SME Banking Club Conference 

in Tbilisi on May 17-18, Olena Gryniuk talked to Maya 

Margie Younes, Head of the Marketing Group at BLC 

Bank (Lebanon) about the non-financial services for 

SMEs that the Bank has implemented, and about women 

entrepreneurship in Lebanon. 

also receive mentorship and coaching from the 

Jury members who are all professionals and key 

players in the SME ecosystem, and most of all 

are independent from the Bank, giving further 

credibility to the Awards. 

What proportion of your SME customers 

used at least one component of the 

program? What is the coverage? 

Our non-financial services are offered to all SMEs, 

irrespective of whether they are BLC Bank clients 

or not. These services are part of our promise and 

our social responsibility towards SMEs to develop 

and grow that segment, knowing that the more 

this segment improves, the better the country’s 

GDP will perform. 

Maya Margie Younes, 

Head of the Marketing Group 

at BLC Bank (Lebanon) 

BLC Bank was incorporated in 1950. It is 

part of Fransabank Group, which is the 4th 

largest banking group. While BLC Bank has 

a market share of 3%, it has an SME market share 

of ~15%. 

You provide a full and comprehensive range 

of Non-Financial Services (NFS) for SMEs. 

What was your primary objective when 

implementing NFS? 

The Bank’s primary objective in providing nonfinancial 

services was to be able to differentiate 

itself from the competition. The market in 

Lebanon very small and saturated with more than 

65 financial institutions serving less than 3 million 

bankable Lebanese. We wanted to differentiate 

ourselves through our commitment to SMEs 

and wanted to become their Bank of choice. We 

ran a market research to understand the needs 

of SMEs that revealed that SMEs needed nonfinancial 

support such as access to knowledge 

and access to the market, which led us to develop 

our non-financial offering. This gave way to our 

learning and development, and networking 

and consultancy services. We also launched The 

Brilliant Lebanese Awards, which is currently in 

its 7th edition. The Awards were and still are the 

first banking awards in the MENA region geared 

towards Lebanese entrepreneurs and SMEs. They 

provide SMEs with exposure, acknowledge and 

recognize their success and inspire other SMEs to 

follow in the winners’ footsteps. I can honestly say 

we have done a great job. Even finalists that were 

not winners got a good exposure and were able 

to find investors or opportunities to access other 

markets and improve their growth. The finalists 

What are the critical steps in implementing 

NFS services successfully within the bank? 

This is an important question. First things first, 

the top management’s support is crucial for the 

success of such a program. We had to develop 

a business case and show the management 

potential growth forecasts for the Bank and its 

customer-base as a result of providing such a 

service, knowing that the management itself 

wanted to differentiate BLC Bank from the 

competition and increase profits, of course. The 

business case proved positive, projecting that 

if we implemented this approach of servicing 

the SME sector with a 360-degree approach, 

the numbers would be better and customer 

acquisition would increase, which is exactly what 

happened, with the results turning out to be very 

good. 

Is it easy to open a business in Lebanon? 

No, it’s not easy to open a business in Lebanon. 

It takes a lot of time and paperwork, and you 

have to meet a long list of requirements. In fact, 

Lebanon holds 133rd place in the Ease of Doing 

Business Ranking by the World Bank. 

How are the needs of female entrepreneurs 

different compared to those of male 

entrepreneurs? And how does the Bank 

meet them? 

28 


Event 

Maya Margie Younes, speaking during the discussion panel at Caucasus SME 

Banking Club Conference 2018 in Tbilisi, May 17-18 

There’s no real difference, even our market 

research showed that. They all need access to 

finance along with the support brought forward 

through the non-financial services: networking, 

business advice, access to knowledge. 

However, on a more social level, with women 

coming later into the economy, they need a 

boost in self-confidence to venture-off and start 

their own businesses. In addition, there is the 

constant work-life balance issue. Due to cultural 

stereotypes, women are expected by their 

husbands to be fully devoted to their families. So, 

women have an extra challenge in comparison 

with men, as being a successful businesswoman 

leaves less personal time. This is a critical 

difference between men and women in business. 

One of the major challenges that they face is 

access to finance. Banks don’t have high-risk 

appetites and ask for a lot of collateral before 

they lend money to SMEs. This in particular is 

a bigger challenge for women, because they 

have less tangible assets such as property or 

guarantors to secure their loans and end up 

with fewer opportunities than men. Why is 

that? In some religions, a woman will receive a 

smaller inheritance than her brother will as she 

is expected to marry a man who will eventually 

inherit from his father. So, they end up with less 

to offer as collateral than men and are faced 

with a much greater challenge when it comes 

to accessing finance. This is why we decided to 

collaborate with IFC on a risk-sharing facility, 

whereby we agreed on a $ 10 million dollars 

credit line to lend to SMEs, with a special focus 

on female entrepreneurs, who can then take out 

loans from BLC Bank with minimal or almost no 

collateral. We have already distributed the credit 

line and are now looking to secure a second 

credit line of $10 million. 

In Lebanon, the design, fashion and jewelry 

design industries are mostly dominated by 

women, as is the food industry, e.g. bakeries 

and restaurants. There are very few women in 

male-dominated sectors. We had one female 

finalist in the Brilliant Lebanese Awards, who 

independently runs a company that equips 

cars with military grade armors, so that was 

very interesting: a woman in a male-dominated 

sector, and she is doing a great job. 

Scan QR code to watch Maya’s 

presentation during Caucasus18 Conference 

To what extend are your branches or RMs 

involved in the promotion of NFS among 

customers? What is their role? 

Since non-financial services are not part of the 

core banking business, it was challenging to get 

RMs involved; it’s not easy for them to accept 

that they needed to provide these additional 

services free of charge. Sometimes when we 

announce that we are organizing training, it’s 

difficult for RMs to sell that program to their 

clients. What we did was to assign ambassadors 

to our various branches, who are responsible 

for nurturing SMEs and female entrepreneurs. 

They had targets and were trained specifically 

on what our offering includes. For the Brilliant 

Lebanese Awards, because we go after SMEs 

and solicit applications to the awards, we 

considered a monetary incentive. So, all 

employees, irrespective of whether they work in 

HO or other departments, were given financial 

incentives. 


29

CAUCASUS18 INSIGHTS & TAKEAWAYS 

SME BANKING ECOSYSTEM 

AT TBC BANK IN GEORGIA 

For TBC Bank (Georgia), SME Banking is a whole ecosystem 

that not only involves lending to SMEs or opening current 

accounts. Tamuna Zhizhilashvili, Deputy Director of 

Marketing Communications & Business Banking at TBC Bank 

(Georgia), talked about this during the Caucasus18 SME 

Banking Club Conference in Tbilisi (May 17-18, 2018). 

Here, we publish key messages from Tamuna’s presentation. 

About TBC Bank 

To shorten this time, TBC Bank offers a remote process for customer 

onboarding and opening a current account within 5 minutes. The customer 

fills in a questionnaire containing 14 questions and the current account is 

opened in 5 minutes without visiting the Bank branch. 

If the customer wants to visit the bank during the process of opening an 

account and sign, and store paper documents in his office, the customer 

can call the Bank instead of visiting in person and after the account is 

opened, TBC Bank, equipped with a fleet of ecofriendly cars, will visit the 

customer and deliver all the documents for signing. 

Non-financial services 

TBC Bank has been providing non-financial services for SMEs for 5 years. 

The main Bank’s activities are focused on: 

• Education. Since 2013, the Bank has provided around 15,000 trainings 

for small businesses. The Bank launched the educational portal 

(tbcbusiness.ge) and is also providing individual consultations and 

organizing regional events for customers. 

Relationship model 

At TBC Bank, concept of the Relationship model is developing during last 3 

years, so that today each affluent SME customer has only one relationship 

manager but is internally supported by the Product manager and Loan 

officer inside the Bank. 

• Business Award. This is the largest Business Award in Georgia. TBC 

Bank has granted the award for 2 years. Last year, it gathered 700 

participants. The event campaign runs for 6 months in Social Media 

and via direct campaigns (with no TV ads) which enables the Bank to 

reach almost one third of the Georgian population with a relatively low 

marketing budget. 

Digital onboarding 

Though it only takes 5 minutes to register a business in Georgia (Georgia 

is ranked 9th of 190 countries in the latest Ease of Doing Business Ranking 

and 4th for Starting a Business – SME Banking Club), the standard process 

for opening current account takes up to 40 minutes. 

• Support for start-ups and new businesses (the website of the 

Startuper program — www.startuperi.ge) empowers customers to 

start new businesses and get financial and non-financial support from 

the Bank on preferential terms. Startaperi in Georgian means Startup 

Nation. The program consists of financial and non-financial support 

from the Bank. Non-financial support covers training, consultations, 

the web catalogue and media support. Financial support involves 

financing new businesses using loans. One of the core segments that 

30 


Event 

the ecosystem surrounding the customer that helps the business to 

operate smoothly. 

• B2B Platform for Business. This is the next step in creating an 

ecosystem around the customer. The Bank introduced the platform to 

promote cooperation and communication between app developers 

and small businesses. The platform www.businesstool.ge will 

connect app developers and small businesses to help SMEs run their 

business more effectively and promote the creation of new apps 

for businesses. The Bank wants to organize an Apps Challenge to 

promote and popularize the creation and usage of apps in customer 

businesses. 

Tamuna Zhizhilashvili, 

Deputy Director of Marketing Communications & 

Business Banking at TBC Bank (Georgia) 

the Bank is financing right now are new hotels. The demand for this 

kind of financing has increased due to the rapid increase of tourists 

coming to Georgia. Tourist flow increased significantly compared to 

the previous year and the hospitality infrastructure is not sufficiently 

developed for tourists in such large numbers. TBC Bank offers a loan for 

building new hotels that finances 60% of the cost. And the customer 

starts repaying the loan when the hotel receives its first guests thanks 

to a 2.5-year grace period on repayment granted by the Bank. Almost 

One hundred new hotels have already received financing through 

this program. The Bank is also financing Agri startups, for example, 

those that plant trees. The grace period in this case can be extended 

to up to 5 years – when the first harvest is carried out. The third type 

of lending product offered by the Bank involves loans of up to 200 

thousand Georgian lari (EUR 70,000) for small startups that have been 

generating revenue for at least 3 months. 

TBC Bank has been operating this program for a year and a half. All 

financed projects and customers receive business support from the 

Bank. This is not only about disbursement of the loan but also the 

development of the project and customer in later stages by providing 

consultancy, structuring the deal properly and involving the right 

people. The idea is to build an entire ecosystem around the customer 

that makes running the business more effective. Now, there are no 

overdue payments on these loans at all. 

• Chatbot for Business. Firstly, TBC Bank implemented the Bank’s 

chatbot into Facebook messenger for servicing customers. This 

was the first chatbot speaking Georgian in the country. The chatbot 

was created with the cooperation of a Georgian startup working in 

the area of AI. Then, TBC Bank decided to provide the chatbot to its 

business customers as well. This is a ready-made chatbot integrated 

into Facebook messenger that the Bank will provide its SME customers, 

allowing them to communicate with their customers without any 

development work on the part of the customer. Right now, the 

Bank has pilot projects underway that even offer online payment 

functionality integrated into the messenger. This is also an element in 

• Introduced TBC Business as a brand. As SME Banking at TBC Bank 

means providing to the customer the whole ecosystem, the Bank has 

introduced the brand TBC Business, proving that the Bank really support 

businesses and that opening accounts and lending are only a small part 

of the services the Bank offers them. 

The main aim of the Bank is to make doing business in Georgia easier and 

empower entrepreneurship development in the country. This is how the 

Bank plans to increase the number of its SME customers. This is TBC Bank’s 

strategy — to promote and facilitate entrepreneurship in Georgia. 

Notes recorded by Olena Gryniuk 

Scan QR code 

to watch Tamuna’s presentation 

from Caucasus18 Conference 


31

EVENT 

During the visit to Raiffeisen Polbank 

SME Study tour to Poland: 

Inspired by innovations 

I 

n May 2018 a group of SME Bankers from Egypt – representatives of 

commercial banks and Egyptian Banking Institute – came to Poland to 

learn best practices of banking solutions for small business companies. 

SME Banking Club hosted the Tour and visits to Polish banks working with 

SMEs, and some fintechs. 

We visited one of the Idea Hubs in Warsaw. Tomasz Górski, Idea Bank, 

among other topics, told about the concept of the first 100 days of customer’s 

life in the Bank. When everything is fresh and new to the customer what they 

do at Idea Bank to instill a habit in them of using the Bank. 

Krzysztof Pulkiewicz showed how BanqUP works with SME customers 

directly and also how they can cooperate with the banks within the B-2-B 

model. 

Tomasz Górski (Idea Bank) 

Krzysztof Pulkiewicz (BanqUP) 

Michal Pawlik shared their experience at SMEO of financing Polish SMEs 

purely online. 

Łukasz Vászon during the presentation of Mobile ATM at Idea Bank 

Michal Pawlik (SMEO) 

Bank’s experience in the launching of Idea Cloud, Mobile ATM, and 

packages for entrepreneurs are also topics of great interest. 

32 


Event 

At ING Bank Śląski we talked about agile way of working, launched in 

SME/MC Division in 2017 and also about digital processes for business 

customers, starting from the purely online customer’s onboarding and 

opening current account till signing the loan agreement and selling 

insurances digitally via the online banking system – ING Business. 

The presentation focused on Relationship model for SMEs in Raiffeisen 

Polbank and sharing the experience in building knowledge and sales 

competency framework was very valuable and interactive. 

Marcin Kryszeń (ING Bank Śląski) 

Adam Walendziewski (ING Bank Śląski) 

From left to right: Wojciech Rudzinski, Jan Czeremcha, 

Grzegorz Chrzanowski (Raiffeisen Polbank) 

Citi Handlowy shared with the group main processes and products they have 

for business customers: lending products, cash management products, FX. 

mBank, among other topics, showed their process of business registration 

of through Bank’s online banking system, online banking system itself, 

mobile banking, credit process and mAccounting. 

Michał Kozubowski 

(Citi Handlowy) 

During the presentaion at mBank 

During the visit to mBank 

Joanna Ratajczyk 


We talked about working with agricultural customers during a visit to 

Agri Hub at BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank. Read about the Hub and how BGŻ 

BNP Paribas approaches farmers in the interview with Bartosz Urbaniak. 

Maciej Zurawek 


BOŚ Bank shared their experience in financing pro-ecological projects of 

business customers and how they approach business customers. 

During the visit at BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank 

Scan QR code to view 

mor photos on the Tour 


33

CEE18 INSIGHTS & TAKEAWAYS 

ING Business – an omnichannel 

platform for business clients 

During the CEE SME Banking Club Conference 2018 in Warsaw (October 29-30), 

Adam Walendziewski (Digital Platforms Tribe Lead at ING Bank Slaski) presented 

ING Business, an omnichannel digital platform for SME, Mid Corp and Wholesale 

customers at ING Bank Slaski (Poland), as well as an impressive example of the success 

of the Agile way of working at the Bank. 

Adam Walendziewski (ING Bank Śląski) during his 

presentation at the CEE SME Banking Club Conference 

2018 in Warsaw (October 29-30) 

Here, we publish key messages of Adam’s 

presentation: 

ING Business is an omnichannel digital platform 

for SME, Mid Corp and Wholesale customers 

which ING Bank Śląski treats as a single access 

point for all the products customers have with 

the Bank. 

ING Business consists of three layers: 1 – the 

most important ones, at the heart of the 

application, are product layers. “We started 

with Cash Management products (accounts 

& transactions), then we added trade finance 

products, loans, financial markets, leasing 

and more. Service layers cover product layers: 

requests (over 60 types of requests) related to 

ING Business products, e.g. requests for new 

loans, requests for new guarantees, etc. We 

have a communication module and a proxy 

management module to perform their changes 

in the proxies and ensure the rights of the 

people in the system”. Almost all documents 

and agreements can be signed electronically 

without visiting a branch. These Service layers 

are covered with Touchpoint layers. The most 

important for now include the web browser, 

tablet version, native mobile apps for IOS and 

Android platforms and Webservice Host-2- 

Host with the possibility to directly connect the 

customer’s API to the ING Business Ecosystem. 

34 


Event 

“Now we constantly see that users, especially 

CFOs who are in a hurry, increasingly use native 

mobile apps, specifically to check account 

balances and account history. Some of our 

users use the tablet version. And a few years 

ago, as one of few banks in the world I guess, 

we developed an app for wearables,” Adam said 

during his presentation. 

The main features of ING Business: 

• Human-oriented. 

• Process-oriented 

• Multiprocess 

• Scalable 

• Easily supportable 

• Consistent with ING principles 

ING Business is an omnichannel platform, 

meaning that a user can start a process in one 

channel and finish it in another one. 

“We decided to make the system supportable 

and adaptable for every customer, so that each 

user can adapt the system to their own needs, 

using dashboards. When we started to analyze 

how users use our system, it turned out that only 

two main roles/personas were needed: entering 

transactions into the system and checking 

balances and sometimes accepting payments. 

Bigger clients also need functionality that allows 

them to “build” a role as needed, for example for 

employees working only in, e.g. trade finance”. 

Many features are available via ING Business. 

The Bank’s main approach is that every group 

of products (accounts, cards, trade finance 

products, etc.) has its own dashboard. 

95% of users only use the cash management 

features of the system. This is the heart of 

the system. That’s why it is crucial that these 

features work smoothly. Every product in the 

Cash Management area is covered within 

ING Business. And with respect to the digital 

acquisition of customers – a prospect can open 

an account purely online at our website without 

visiting a branch, within 5 min, by signing the 

agreement online. 

Each user can adapt the main screen by 

choosing a set of widgets. Additionally, 

customers can switch easily to other bank 

platforms such as the Aleo platform, factoring 

& leasing applications, etc. 

Scan the QR code to watch the presentation about 

Digital account opening process for business customers 

in ING Bank Śląski during the CEE SME Banking Club 

Conference 2017 in Krakow (Nov 23-24) 


35


Financing 

This is a dashboard for finance products, 

where customers can see their credit limit, 

repayment schedule, loan application, etc. 

and of course, each widget can be added to 

the home page as well. Almost all the lending 

products at the bank are also offered via ING 

Business, from standard loans to prescoring 

offers. 

Financial markets 

A recently developed module allows 

customers to exchange foreign currencies 

online. 

Mobile application – 

available for IOS and Android 

In mobile apps, the main focus is on 

cash management functionality. So it’s 

possible to check balances, enter, sign and 

send a transaction to previously entered 

beneficiaries. The FX module is available so 

that customers can exchange currencies 

via a mobile app. There are some additional 

functionalities available in the app like 

geolocalization, touch ID, etc. 

How ING Business evolved 

“We started from the payment channel, a product approach aimed at 

offering almost all banking products on this platform. Year by year we 

added more self-service functions like the possibility to order cash 

at the branch, order a convoy, order new cards, etc. Now we have 60 

applications. This year we added new features to support digital sales 

processes for SMEs because we treat ING Business not only as a service 

platform but also as a sales platform,” said Adam. 

Notes made by Olena Gryniuk 

36 


Event 

CRM & Digital Transformation 

Why and How You Should Digitize Customer Relationships 

During the CEE SME Banking Club 

Conference 2018 in Warsaw (October 29-30), 

Anna Glazunova (Livespace) and Maryia 

Dylets (Alfa-Bank Belarus) presented a case 

study involving the common implementation 

of a CRM system within Alfa-Bank Belarus. 

Here are the key points of their presentation. 

2 years ago, Alfa-Bank Belarus’ adoption of a new strategy meant that the 

bank was faced with the challenge of optimizing customer service costs, 

and it was this goal that lead to their implementation of a CRM. The bank 

launched a remote contact center for its mass business customers segment, 

and together with Livespace (Poland), it implemented a CRM system. 

The initial results were impressive: 

All of this was achieved without hiring extra employees within the bank. 

Upon implementing the CRM solution, the following challenges occurred: 

• Tool that would allow for the proper measurement of customer service 

quality introduced 

• Information about all types of clients from different channels received 

• Problems in business processes identified and brought under control 

The step-by step-process of CRM integration was as follows: 

Anna Glazunova (Livespace) and Maryia Dylets (Alfa-Bank Belarus) 

during their presentation at the CEE SME Banking Club Conference 2018 

in Warsaw (October 29-30) 

Elements of success: 

• Easy to set up the system – little time and few resources required 

• Implementation and adaptation plan (trial period) produced impressive 

results 

• Improved communication between companies – language and cultural 

barriers less of an obstacle 

• Efficient preparation of the legal terms of cooperation in the context of 

various legislative systems (EU and non-EU) 

• Readiness of the supplier to meet high standards for the banking sector. 

Livespace 

Polish company, based in Warsaw, provider of a next-gen B2B processfocused 

CRM, with task & sales automation. 

Alfa-Bank Belarus 

Established in 1999, offers services to all customer segments through its 

head office in Minsk and 17 branches in all regions of the country. 

Scan the QR code to watch the 

presentation from the CEE SME 

Banking Club Conference 2018 

in Warsaw (Oct 29-30) 


37


DEPOSIT MARKETPLACE FOR SMES — 

ACCESS TO SAVINGS PRODUCTS ACROSS EUROPE 

Raisin is a leading fintech 

company in Europe, 

established 5 years ago, based 

in Berlin. 

During the CEE SME Banking Club 

Conference 2018 in Warsaw 

(October 29-30), Lisa Schmid (Head 

of Business Clients at Raisin) presented 

the Raisin platform and how banks can 

digitalize the customer experience when 

placing a deposit. 

Here we publish key messages of Lisa’s 

presentation. 

Through Raisin, more than 60 banks across 

Europe access funding in a diversified and 

cost-efficient manner. The business concept is 

to connect private customers and SMEs with 

partner banks for term and overnight deposits. 

Business model 

“We have a Partner bank and it has only one 

interface, which is Raisin. They decide where 

they want to place their deposit offers: country 

platforms and pan European platform (Raisin. 

Lisa Schmid (Raisin) during her presentation at the CEE 

SME Banking Club Conference 2018 in Warsaw (October 29-30) 

com). The partner bank can also place its offer 

with distribution partners (so that their term 

deposit offer is available for, e.g. BBVA clients or 

N26 clients, etc.)” Lisa said. 

Raisin products 

• Partner banks can decide whether they want 

to offer their products to retail customers or 

SMEs, or both 

• The main products are term deposits, notice 

accounts and overnight deposits 

• Available currencies: EUR, GBP, USD. Some local 

currencies are also available: NOK, CHF, BGN. 

Steps to open a deposit for an SME customer 

via Raisin: 

1. Registration on the Raisin platform. 

The customer should sign up using data of 

the company, managing director and main 

beneficial owners. 

2. Deposit selection. The customer has 

access to all partner bank term deposits and 

chooses the banks, term, interest rate and 

the amount they want to deposit. It’s only 

takes a few clicks. 

3. Identification. Servicing bank performs the 

identification of the director, company and 

main beneficial owners. 

4. Transfer of funds to the Raisin account, 

which is opened for free. 

5. Deposit opening at Partner bank. During 

this last step, Raisin forwards the account 

opening documents and funds to the 

partner banks. After maturity, the partner 

bank pays the deposit back. Then the 

customer can access the funds, including 

earned interest on the Raisin platform, and 

invest it somewhere else or withdraw it to 

the personal account. 

Notes made by Olena Gryniuk 

How Raisin supports banks: 

• Acquiring the needed stable funding. 

This is a typical product partnership 

when a bank wants to place a certain 

number of products on the platform. 

Raisin handles customer acquisition, 

customer onboarding, KYC processes 

and customer service for the bank. 

• Managing banks’ excess liquidity. If 

banks want to get rid of their liquidity, 

they can integrate Raisin partners’ term 

deposit offer in to their online banking, 

making it possible for clients to deposit 

their funds with Raisin partner banks 

Among others, N26 and BBVA have 

become distributor partners. 

• Optimizing costs, regulatory compliance 

and diversification. 

38 


CEE18 

LEASELINK – LEASING AS A METHOD OF PAYMENT 

On October 29, during a Study Tour 

as part of the CEE SME Banking Club 

Conference 2018 in Warsaw, Marcin 

Grodowski — co-founder of LeaseLink 

— shared details with us of how they are 

offering fully online leasing for micro and 

small businesses within the space of 15 

minutes, with the service available 24 hours 

a day. Moreover, LeaseLink has also turned 

leasing into a method of payment. 

LeaseLink is the only company on the 

European market providing an entirely 

online leasing procedure. There is no need 

for customers to leave the office to buy 

equipment, and the process takes only 15 

minutes! 

LeaseLink specializes in transactions with 

a value of PLN 1 to 50,000, carried out via 

e-commerce or directly fro m equipment 

providers when a customer wants to pay for 

purchases as easily as by wire-transfer. 

This is what the process looks like: 

Marcin Grodowski, 

co-founder at LeaseLink 

LeaseLink Business Philosophy: 

Our primary goal is to deliver leasing services to small businesses in a simple, transparent and 

exceptionally quick way. 

LeaseLink’s way of doing business is typical for most technology companies (FinTechs) and it’s 

based on combining know-how and technology in order to: 

• simplify processes and lower the costs of doing business; 

• offer a cheaper solution than the alternative on the market; 

• earn profits through the effect of scale instead of individual/per-customer trans actions. 


39



Business agility is a mindset 

During the CEE SME Banking Club Conference 2018 in 

Warsaw (October 29-30) John Mark Williams moderated 

several panels, including the one on digital transformation 

and agile approach in SME Banking. Olena Gryniuk talked 

to John right after the Conference about business agility and 

Breakthrough program John was running in Santander UK. 

You are heading Agile Business 

Consortium in the UK. What is the 

purpose of that organization and 

how your everyday job looks like? 

The Agile Business Consortium is a global leader 

in promoting business agility. Founded in 1994 

as a not-for-profit organization, it pioneered 

Agile Principles and continues to inspire new 

developments and thinking, such as the role 

of innovation at the heart of the Framework for 

Business Agility. 

Our mission is to lead, enable and promote 

business agility worldwide. Agile businesses 

work faster, better and deliver greater value for 

money — delighting customers, motivating 

staff and driving additional profit. Agile practices 

improve all aspects of an organization, from HR 

and finance, to project management, product 

development, and organizational change. 

What does agility mean for you? 

Business agility is a mindset. It gives 

organizations the flexibility and adaptability to 

respond rapidly to business change. More than 

that, it helps organizations achieve the ability 

to predict amidst uncertainty and to position 

themselves to meet the complexity that 

characterizes today’s business and social world. 

During the CEE SME Banking Club Conference 

2018 in Warsaw this October you moderated 

a Panel on digital transformation and agile 

approach in SME Banking. Except for ING 

Bank, representative of which we had during 

the Discussion Panel, which implemented 

an agile way of working in the SME business 

line, do you know many banks that did this 

as well? Do you believe that banks, being 

probably the last stronghold of waterfall 

methods and being very much traditional 

and hierarchical organizations, can become 

agile? 

There are a few other large banks who are 

deliberately engaged in developing business 

agility — Barclays would be a prime example. 

Yet, many more are becoming more agile in 

their thinking, as they embark on the journey 

toward true business agility. This is driven by 

two things. The first, on the supply side, is the 

need to transform themselves in a market 

where traditional banking models are being 

rapidly dismantled and disaggregated by 

challengers from outside the banking field — 

a classic case of disruption. The second is the 

demand side need to satisfy customers who are 

increasingly expecting similar levels of service 

from their bank, as they receive from the slickest 

and swiftest of service providers in every field. 

Customers transfer their expectations — if 

Amazon or Google can use AI to predict what 

I want to buy or what information I need to 

gather, why can’t my bank predict how my 

finances need to be managed, and do that 

for me? Certainly, banks can become agile — 

40 


Event 

whether or not they will, depends on how soon 

their senior management wakes up to the fact 

that business agility is not a fad or a fashion — 

it is a necessary competency for still being in 

business in the future. 

John Mark Williams at the CEE SME Banking Club 

Conference 2018 in Warsaw (October 29-30) 

For almost five years, you were the Head of 

the Breakthrough Program in Santander 

UK, which was the program scale-ups — 

fast-growing SMEs. Could you tell us more 

about the program? Why have you decided 

to create a special program for scale-ups? 

How are the needs of scale-up different? 

Santander UK’s Breakthrough program was 

the first real attempt by a bank to become 

customer-driven in the SME space. We 

approached it by adopting a very simple mantra 

— ‘This is not Banking. This is Business Growth’. 

Most importantly, it wasn’t the bank’s business 

growth that we focused on — it was the growth 

of the SMEs. A year of deep research showed a 

range of needs that characterized SMEs, only one 

of which involved finance. I built the program 

around the five core functions of a business 

— Strategy, Marketing, Operations, People 

and Finance. Whilst the bank could provide 

all manner of financial support for the SMEs, 

the other elements were delivered through a 

network of partners, with the bank acting as 

a platform through which SMEs could access 

support to meet all their major challenges. We 

ran events large and small, bringing together 

SMEs with a wide range of experience, to learn 

from and mentor each other. We ran trade 

missions to countries across the globe, either 

where Santander was strong, or where we had 

close connections with SME-orientated banks, 

opening markets for businesses by putting them 

directly in touch with international customers, 

suppliers and partners. We held Master Classes 

with iconic businesses, such as Google, McLaren, 

Saatchi & Saatchi and many more, who opened 

their doors to the SMEs and showed them how 

to become a large business, the challenges they 

might face, and how some of them might be 

overcome. We worked with the SMEs on their 

talent acquisition dilemmas, supplying them 

with talent management development, and 

mentors, either directly or again through our 

partner network. And of course, as a bank, we 

had a finance proposition, including a £200m 

Growth Capital Fund and myriad other facilities 

for operational or international finance for 

growth. 

The thing which defined the programme 

was the emphasis on scale-ups. The original 

research had identified that small percentage 

of SME businesses who were responsible for the 

majority of economic activity and job growth, 

and we moved very quickly to focus the benefits 

of the Breakthrough programme on that 

cohort. Scale-ups are different in three ways. 

The first is that they are growth-focused. That 

may sound strange, yet not all SME businesses 

are orientated toward growth — many are 

lifestyle businesses, and scale-ups represent a 

small percentage — maybe 6% or so — of the 

marketplace. Secondly, they operate at pace. 

They know the value of time in the life-cycle of 

a product or service, and they also understand 

almost instinctively that their competitors who 

are also scale-ups, never stand still. And thirdly, 

they understand risk. Not the popular image 

of the entrepreneur — taking huge risks and 

hoping for the best. True, entrepreneurial scaleups 

operate by assessing risk, and then deciding 

on the basis of experience and appetite, what 

risk they will accept. 

This means that the needs of the scale-ups are 

very specific. 

What were the expectations of scaleups 

towards the Bank? Did they expect 

to get from a Bank a piece of advice on 

their business, a matching with potential 

partners or other nonbanking services? 

Scale-ups want a bank that will work with them 

to achieve growth — and which understands 

that growth is not a straight-line on the graph. 

It fluctuates over time, yet the faith in growth 

remains in the scale-up — and they want that 

faith to be shown by their bank. They want 

a bank that matches their pace, whether in 

payments for overseas initiatives or decisions 

on working capital support. And finally, they 

want a bank that is prepared to share the future 

with them — not one that is traditionally, and 

cripplingly, risk-averse. 

They certainly want advice. They also want a 

bank that recognizes that growth is a function 

of innovation; innovation is a function of ideas; 

ideas are a function of connections. The most 

valuable benefit provided to SME scale-ups by 

the Breakthrough was the connections we were 

able to facilitate. We connected them with one 

another, with customers, with suppliers, with 

partners, with talent and ideas and finance. 

The biggest difference between SMEs and 

large corporates is that large corporates are 

connected everywhere — SMEs are poorly 

connected. Whether it is through technology 

or contacts or services, a bank that connects 

its scale-up customers is a bank that is adding 

value for them. 

What is the effect of the Program? 

Santander’s Breakthrough program is still 

running, reaching more businesses than ever 

now. It transformed thinking within the bank 

and was rolled out across the Santander global 

group as Santander Advance. I am proud that 

Santander Breakthrough is still motivating and 

supporting SME businesses in the UK, and its 

children, as Santander Advance, are benefiting 

SMEs across the world. 


41

EVENT 

CEE SME Banking Club Conference 2018 

For the fourth time, SME Banking Club 

gathered SME Bankers in Warsaw (Poland) 

at the CEE SME Banking Conference 2018, 

which was held on October 29-30 and devoted 

to financial services for SMEs in that region 

(#CEE18). 

More than 100 attendees from 20 countries took 

part in this year’s conference. 

Day one of the conference on October 29 was 

devoted to the topic of cooperation between 

banks and FinTechs, and started with on-site 

visits to Innovation ING Lab — a space that 

supports creative thinking and innovations 

within ING Bank Śląski; and LeaseLink — a 

FinTech leasing company that provides online 

leasing to entrepreneurs (for more details, see 

p. 39). 

The program continued with a panel discussion 

on Models for Cooperation Between Banks 

& FinTechs. 

Maciej Marszalek from The Heart Warsaw talked 

about Why and How Banks Should cooperate 

with FinTechs. 

Why 

Balazs Topor (Raiffeisen Bank International) 

summed up the results of RBI’s first 

Accelerator program – Elevator Lab 1.0. 

One of the main key factors for the successful 

implementation of solutions with start-ups is 

serious, dedicated resources and agility on the 

bank’s part. Kamila Wincenciak presented RBL_ 

- Accelerator program in Alior Bank (Poland), 

During the on-site visits to Innovation ING Lab 

(Warsaw, October 29, 2018) 

which was launched in September this year (for 

more details, see pp. 8-9). Paulina Skrzypińska 

and Michał Miszulowicz presented a Start-up 

Code that was implemented within BGŻ BNP 

Paribas in Poland to accelerate the purchasing 

process for new technological solutions and 

templates for documents for the so-called Proof 

of Concept (for more details, see p. 6). 

We are in an era in which production 

and distribution are being replaced 

by experience, ease, simplicity and 

transparency 

Entry barriers are much easier to overcome 

— technology, regulations, access to 

capital 

Customer experience and expectations 

spread across industries 

...they even spread within industries but 

across borders! 

Millennials are turning...40 

How 

Innovate on the Core 

Challenge your Core 

Venture out and experiment 

Open Up 

During the panel discussion on Models for Cooperation Between Banks & FinTechs. Left to right: 

Balazs Topor (Raiffeisen Bank International), Kamila Wincenciak (Alior Bank), Michał Miszulowicz 

(BGŻ BNP Paribas), Paulina Skrzypińska (BGŻ BNP Paribas), Maciej Marszalek (The Heart Warsaw) 

42 


Event 

Afterwards, 8 startups offering innovative solutions pitched their ideas 

on how they can help acquire more customers for banks and create 

new features for SME customers. 

Blockey — a website plugin that helps companies verify a customer’s 

identity and complete the KYC process through the bank login. 

bNesis — a marketing automation system based on continuous 

monitoring of customer events within non-traditional data sources in order 

to allow SMEs to apply for a loan with just a few clicks. 

Eucaps — easy access to the entire European market for publicly traded 

SME instruments. 

Finea — a fintech focused on delivery of online factoring solutions to 

micro and SME companies. 

Kekemeke — digitalization of loyalty programs. 

Partner HUB — an e-invoicing platform that can be integrated into 

internet banking systems. 

QuickCash — a platform that evaluates SME Business Performance & 

Credit Risk and defines the threshold for SME credit with full automation, 

within 15 minutes and online. 

Zweryfikujfirme.pl — automatic analysis of financial data from SAF-T. 

steps taken by the bank, what still needs to be done, and what it takes 

for a bank to become an agile organization. John Mark Williams (Agile 

Business Consortium) moderated the discussion panel and raised the topic 

of, among other, the main driving factor behind digital transformation 

within banks, given that many banks continue to bring in profit despite 

still using old legacy systems and not undergoing digital transformation. 

He also raised the question of whether digital transformation and adopting 

the Agile way of working happen simultaneously. 

Anna Glazunova (Livespace) and with Marya Dylets (Alfa Bank Belarus) 

presented a business case study on the implementation of a CRM 

within Alfa Bank Belarus (for more details, see p. 37). 

During the Pitching Session in RBL_ 

(Warsaw, October 29, 2018) 

Left to right: Anna Glazunova (Livespace), 

Marya Dylets (Alfa Bank Belarus) 

Day two of the conference on October 30 started with a panel discussion 

of Digital Strategies in SME Banking and the Agile way of working. 

Charles-Alexandre Gamba (ITDC BC) raised the question in his presentation 

on what was stopping banks from proceeding with digital transformation, 

and the answers came during the discussion panel. Adam Walendziewski 

presented the Agile way of working within ING Bank Śląski along with the 

During the next panel — Innovations in Daily Banking — Adam 

Walendziewski presented ING Business — an omnichannel platform 

for SME & Corporate customers that provides a single access point for 

all banking and non-banking products (for more details, see pp. 34-36). 

Agnieszka Piróg and Patrycja Leszek-Królikowska (Ailleron) talked about 

Customer digital experience in business banking and showed how 

a digital platform can fit different segments and cater to the needs of 

SME customers. Lisa Schmid (Raisin) showed how banks can digitalize 

deposit products for SMEs and how Raisin is doing just that (for more 

details, see p. 38). 

Tomasz Jakubczyk (BOŚ Bank) moderated the discussion panel. 

During the discussion panel. Left to right: Adam Walendziewski 

(ING Bank Śląski), Charles-Alexandre Gamba (ITDC BC), 

John Mark Williams (Agile Business Consortium) 

During the discussion panel. Left to right: 

Lisa Schmid (Raisin), Adam Walendziewski 

(ING Bank Śląski), Patrycja Leszek-Królikowska 

(Ailleron), Agnieszka Piróg (Ailleron), 

Tomasz Jakubczyk (BOŚ Bank). 


43

EVENT 

Marta Mroz-Sipiora and Marcin Kwilosz from Asseco Poland presented Digi 

Trade — new solution that helps digitize Trade Finance products for SME 

customers. 

Marta Mroz-Sipiora and Marcin Kwilosz (Asseco Poland) during their presentation 

and become important partners for small businesses. Łukasz Bystrzyński 

(CashDirector) gave a presentation on Automated Accounting solutions 

as an element of SME Banking Ecosystems. In cooperation with 

mBank, CashDirector launched the first automated accounting solution 

on the Polish market for SMEs — mAccounting. Krzysztof Pulkiewicz from 

banqUP showed how a bank can provide more tailored solutions to 

SMEs and help them run their businesses more efficiently by using 

BFM tools. 

This year a separate panel was devoted to Agri Banking in order to discuss 

how banks can approach and finance farmers in the new digital reality, what 

the relationship model and the main challenges are when working with 

this customer segment. During this panel, entitled “Agricultural Finance: 

Trends, Digital Technologies and Challenges”, Bartosz Urbaniak (Head of 

Food & Agri Banking at BNP Paribas Group for CEE and Africa) talked about 

the main trends and challenges for farmers in the region. 

During the Digitalization of SME Finance Panel, representatives of online 

lender (iwoca), traditional bank (Raiffeisenbank CZ) and management 

consulting company (PwC Polska) discussed the automation of SME 

lending. John Mark Williams (Agile Business Consortium) moderated the 

discussion panel and discussed, among other topics, the usage of data and 

data analytics in banks’ business decisions and when assessing risks related 

to lending to SMEs. 

During the discussion panel. Left to right: 

Adam Spławski (PwC Polska), Tomas Nemcik 

(Raiffeisenbank CZ), Mariusz Zabrocki (iwoca Poland), 


Bartosz Urbaniak (BNP Paribas Group) 

during his presentation 

Discussion during the panel on Creating an SME Banking Ecosystem, 

which was kicked off by a presentation by Bartosz Witorzeńć from Idea 

Bank (Poland), focused on the creation of ecosystems of services that 

go beyond core banking, thanks to which banks hope to acquire new 

sources of profit and (equally important) deep customer relationships, 

Leasing is particularly advantageous for small and medium-sized 

businesses that do not have a lengthy credit history or a significant asset 

base for collateral. The topic on leasing as a primary source of investment 

financing for agricultural customers was presented by Tomasz Sudaj 

(Santander Leasing Polska). 

Tomasz Sudaj (Santander Leasing Polska) during his presentation 

During the discussion panel. Left to right: Bartosz Witorzeńć (Idea Bank), 

Łukasz Bystrzyński (CashDirector), Krzysztof Pulkiewicz (banqUP). 

44 


Event 

Matija Zulj (Agrivi) presented the benefits of the FMS solution and how 

it can be useful for banks. Andrey Gidulyan (SME Banking Club) hosted 

the discussion panel. 

Daniel Huszár (efcom) 

Left to right: Matija Zulj (Agrivi), Andrey Gidulyan (SME Banking Club) 

Exhibitors: 

Asseco Poland is the largest Polish IT company listed on the Warsaw Stock 

Exchange. It has been developing technologically advanced software 

solutions for all key sectors of the economy for more than 25 years. More 

details at https://pl.asseco.com/. 

The panel on SME Risk Management was preceded by a presentation on 

CEE Economic outlook by Grzegorz Sielewicz (coface). 

Ailleron creates digital technologies that change the relations of companies 

with millions of their customers. More details at http://ailleron.com/. 

Grzegorz Sielewicz (coface) 

Alexander Beresford (Finiata) and Daniel Huszár (efcom) talked about 

automation of factoring services for SMEs in terms of risk, how to use data 

in automation of decision making, how to define which customers to 

onboard and which to reject, and how to do it quickly. 

Alexander Beresford (Finiata) 

SETTCE. Executing any financial transaction has never been easier thanks to 

the SETCCE e-signature solution. More details at https://www.setcce.com/. 

Join us during the next edition in 2019! 


45

EVENT 

CEE SME Banking Club 

29-30 October, 

Warsaw, Poland 

46 


Event 

Katalin Kauzli (Partner HUB) 

Kamila Wincenciak (Alior Bank) 

During the onsite visits 

to Innovation ING Lab 

Left to right: Balazs Topor (Raiffeisen Bank International), Kamila Wincenciak (Alior Bank), 

Michał Miszulowicz (BGŻ BNP Paribas), Paulina Skrzypińska (BGŻ BNP Paribas), 

Maciej Marszalek (The Heart Warsaw) 

Paulina Skrzypińska (BGŻ BNP Paribas) 

Balazs Topor (Raiffeisen Bank International) 

Scan QR code 

to view more 

photos from Day 1 


47

EVENT 

Daniel Huszár (efcom) 

Adam Spławski (PwC Polska) 

Olena Gryniuk (SME Banking Club) 

Tomasz Sudaj (Santander Leasing Polska) 

Lisa Schmid (Raisin) 


48 


Event 

Left to right: Tomas Nemcik (Raiffeisenbank CZ), 

Mariusz Zabrocki (iwoca Poland), John Mark 

Williams (Agile Business Consortium) 

Left to right: Adam Walendziewski (ING Bank 

Śląski), Charles-Alexandre Gamba (ITDC BC), 


Daniel Mrozek 

(Santander Leasing Polska) 

Tomasz Jakubczyk (BOŚ Bank) 

Anna Glazunova (Livespace) 

Bartosz Urbaniak (BNP Paribas Group) 

Scan QR code 

to view more 

photos from Day 2 


49

ABOUT 

the SME Banking Club 

The SME Banking Club was established by a team of former SME bankers in 2010. 

The SME Banking Club organizes regional SME banking conferences on an annual basis (one regional 

conference in each region where it has a presence) that bring together financial institutions, technology 

companies and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation and promote the 

growth of SMEs in the region. 

For details about our regular events, featuring expert professional guidance and exclusive panel 

discussions, visit www.smebanking.events. 

SME Banking Club members benefit from access to detailed analytical market reports and annual studies. 

This information is not available anywhere else in the market. 

Regions of operations: Central and Eastern Europe, CIS countries, the Caucasus region and Central Asia. 

Representative offices in Ukraine and Poland. 

We invite you to stay in touch and join our online platforms: our website, www.smebanking.club; 

our LinkedIn page; and our Soundcloud page, which offers unique knowledge resources. 

Join the SME Banking Club network for events and ideas that connect and inspire.

SBM magazine / 11-2018

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