On April 10-11, 15 SME Bankers (representatives of commercial banks and micro-financial institutions) from 9 countries came to Poland to learn about the best practices of banking solutions for small business companies. SME Banking Club hosted a tour and visits to Polish banks working with SMEs as well as some fintechs.
During the visit to the ING Bank Śląski Head Office in Warsaw, Ewa Szerszeń presented the bank and its results for 2018. Adam Walendziewski presented ING Business, an omnichannel digital platform for SME, Mid Corp and Wholesale customers, as well as an impressive example of the success of the Agile way of working at the bank. ING Business is an omnichannel digital platform which the bank treats as a single access point for all the products customers have with the bank. Via this platform, users can start a process in one channel and finish it in another. More information about the platform is available in SBB Magazine.
Michal Tusznio presented the process for lending SMEs: both the accelerated process with fully digital onboarding and decision-making processes, and also the traditional lending process with human involvement from the bank’s side and the possibility of customized decisions.
During the visit to RBL_Space, where Alior Bank, together with startups from the fintech industry, is implementing new solutions under its RBL_START acceleration program, Łukasz Mańkowski and Małgorzata Filipowska presented how Bank cooperates with startups within the framework of the RBL_Start Accelerator program, and also what conditions need to be met for the bank to invest in startups via RBL_VC. Cooperation with startups is one of the pillars of the bank’s digital banking strategy – its so-called “Digital Disruptor Strategy”, announced by the bank to be in effect until the year 2020. This is also how the bank plans to increase the number of implementations of innovative solutions for all segments, including the SME segment.
Katarzyna Wielgosz and Łukasz Czech presented Agronomist – a platform with value-added services for the food and agricultural sector launched by BNP Paribas Bank Polska at the beginning of April in Poland. It is a comprehensive and modern platform created in collaboration with five innovative startups from three different countries in cooperation with Polish farmers.
The main purpose of Agronomist is to help Food & Agri customers scale up and manage their businesses more efficiently. In 2018, BNP Paribas Group created in Poland an Agro competence center (called Agri Hub) for Poland and the Group’s banks in CEE and Africa. Read more on the Agronomist platform here.
Krzysztof Pulkiewicz from banqUP shared how a bank can provide more tailored solutions to SMEs and help them run their businesses more efficiently by using BFM tools. Business Financial Management empowers SME customers to better forecast and manage their cash-flow by aggregating accounts from different banks and invoices into a single platform.
During the visit to the mBank head office in Lodz, Daniel Pindor and Eliza Działak shared their experience in building the bank’s Ecosystem for SME customers: from starting a business with the bank via mPower Business Starter to the automatic opening of a current account, with all banking products delivered online.
Agata Kaźmierczak presented mAccounting – online accounting services offered by the bank to SME customers.
Maciej Kubalski presented how the bank grants loans to entrepreneurs via mobile channels.
Izabela Jankowska presented how the bank motivates entrepreneurs to accept cashless transactions by providing POS terminals free of charge for 18 months under the Cashless Poland program.
Michal Pawlik demonstrated how the bank provides online factoring for SMEs in SMEO, purely online and with an automated decision-making and disbursement process.
See all photos on our Flickr page and join us next year! Follow our event calendar.
