SBB Magazine / February 2020

EVENT
Building an ecosystem for SME
customers: Roundtable in Prague
On December 5, 2019, SME Banking Club (Poland), together
with Charlie-India (Hungary), organized a Roundtable
in Prague (Czech Republic) to discuss the building of a
productive ecosystem for SME customers with local banks.
Olena Gryniuk (SME Banking Club)
stressed that adding convenience
to daily banking operations is
no advantage enough to give banks a
competitive edge.
The analysis of online banking functionalities
for SME customers in the CEE region shows
(Online Banking for SMEs Study, SME Banking
Club 2019) that primary transactional
operations and access to information about
customer bank accounts, such as an overview
of account balances, transfers in local currency
and international and domestic transfers in
foreign currencies, are implemented at most
of the banks analyzed. So, this is a standard
functionality available to SME customers in
any bank. Meanwhile, providing non-financial
services, combined within the ecosystems that
help entrepreneurs develop their businesses,
is becoming a decisive criterion for small
businesses when choosing a bank.
Integration of Value-Added Services (VAS)
will become a must next year. 30% of banks in
the region have integrated e-invoicing and online
accounting services into their online banking
systems. Integration of a BFM (Business
Financial Management) module gives SME
customers the option to analyze their account
and expenses, but also to forecast cash flow and
manage a company’s liquidity. For the bank, this
module provides the option to cross-sell working
capital lending products and factoring precisely
at the moment when a customer is in the red.
Business rationale for banks to provide
non-financial services to SMEs:
• Each bank must create its own business case
and value proposition in a market. Nonfinancial
services (e-invoicing, accounting,
BFM) are a part of the value proposition
Shortened version
of the Study is
available via the link
Watch
the video
presentation here
A snapshot of the Study:
Online Banking for SMEs Study
for the CEE region
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FEBRUARY 2020