CEE SME Banking Club Conference 2017: How it was

On November 23-24, SME Banking Club gathered more than 90 SME bankers, representatives of leasing and factoring companies, and fintechs in Krakow at the 3d Annual SME Banking Club Conference for Central and Eastern Europe (#CEE17) to discuss the modern trends in financial services for SME customers.

First Conference Day started with an onsite visit to Krakow Technology Park.

During the first panel of the Conference – Startup & Fintech Ecosystem in Poland – Wojciech Przybylski, CEO of KTP, spoke on how Krakow Technology Park supported the development of a modern economy and startup ecosystem in Krakow.

Thibaut Rouquette from the Heart Warsaw gave real arguments on Why & How to cooperate with fintechs.

Michal Miszulowicz (BGŻ BNP Paribas) and Kamila Wincenciak (Alior Bank) presented the way banks collaborate with fintechs.

Łukasz Dyląg, Monika Kania, Wojciech Czajkowski as the representatives of fintechs shared their experience of rising a fintech startup in Poland and cooperation with fintechs.
Olena Gryniuk (SME Banking Club) hosted the day

Click for more photos of the Day 1

The second Conference day started with a keynote presentation of Stefano Valvano (BCG) on how to get big in SME Banking.

Stefano Valvano, BCG

During the Panel devoted to Innovations and Customer Experience in Transactional banking Izabela Całusińska and Ewa Szerszeń presented digital account opening process for business customers launched in ING Bank Slaski in Poland. The process is applicable even not to individual entrepreneurs but the companies and still not common among the banks.

Izabela Całusińska and Ewa Szerszeń, ING Bank Slaski

One more example of digital business account opening was presented by Elina Räsänen (Holvi) – a digital business account to e-residents launched by Holvi this year within E-Residence program in Estonia. E-Residence is a program running for location-independent companies and powered by the Republic of Estonia. And actually, this is the first country which offers digital ID that empowers entrepreneurs around the world to set-up and run a location-independent business. Holvi is a Finland-based digital bank for entrepreneurs – Makers and Doers as they say.

When having account opened, customers are more and more expecting faster payments from their banks, and the topic of adoption of real-time payment rises. Jeffrey Edison (Oracle Financial Services) talked about real-time payments and the roadmap for banks.

Tomasz Les (Asseco Poland) presented new and innovative functionalities in internet banking for SME clients.

A separate Panel was devoted to leasing and factoring to SMEs – Alternative SME Finance Panel. Tomasz Biernat, Polish Factors Association, gave an overview of factoring market in the region.

Leasing is a key driver to ensure SMEs’ growth – the main point of presentation by Tomasz Sudaj, BZ WBK Leasing.

LeaseLink turned leasing into a payment method, and that was the topic of the presentation by Marcin Grodowski.

Milena Videnova, coface Bulgaria, presented coface’s digital solutions for protecting SMEs.

Mariusz Łukasiewicz (Raiffeisen Bank Polska) presented Smart factoR – first banking mobile app on factoring in Poland.

Michal Pawlik (SMEO) hosted a Panel.

Click for more photos of the Day 2
During the Panel on Advanced Programs for SMEs Katarzyna Królak-Wyszyńska, Innovatika, talked on how to become a partner for SME customers.

Marek Soltysiak presented how Alior Bank supports SMEs in Poland and about Zafirmowani.pl – digital portal launched by the bank for SME customers.

SMEs today have more opportunities to sell their products on the domestic market or even export when they reach digital e-commerce platform. How can banks support SMEs in that? Lukasz Rozynski (Opportunity Network) gave us an idea on that.

Fabio Maffioli (SizeUP) presented a tool for diagnostic analysis of business competitiveness which is useful both for business owners and for banks.

During Digital SME Banking Panel Marek Chlebicki (PwC Polska) shared some practical cases on delivering digital process experience to SME clients and a case study on PwC Smart Banking platform.

Krzysztof Pulkiewicz talked about banqUP – purely digital SME bank offering current business accounts, cards, and business apps.

Tamas Josvai presented OTP eBIZ – Digital Finance Manager for Small and Medium Enterprises.

Aleksander Widera (Kredytmarket) and Mariusz Zabrocki (iwoca Poland) talked about SME lending customer experience and online lending for SMEs.

Mariusz Zabrocki, iwoca Poland

Dimitris Petrilis shared the experience of Capital Banking Solutions in digital banking.

Join us in 2018! Up-to-date Conference schedule is available at smebanking.events.