Summary of Activities of Alior Bank in 2019
2019 brought major changes to Alior Bank’s (“Bank”) business profile and its risk management area. These changes were necessary to build solid foundations for continued growth in the years to come. Despite this transformation, the Bank acquired 117k retail and 32k business customers.
It added a number of new products and services to its offer and developed an efficient model to move its customers from the analogue to the digital world. With innovation in mind, the Bank remodelled its mobile application – the fact appreciated by its customers who use it more and more willingly (in 2019, the number of app users increased close to 85%). Long-term partner relationship building and customer satisfaction with services rendered are constantly a priority in the Bank’s activities.
For the retail segment, the Bank extended the package of services available as part of its Jakże Osobiste account. At the end of 2019, personal customers could flexibly select and replace additional benefits choosing from among 10 variants offered by the Bank. Preferential terms of payments in foreign currencies abroad were introduced. The Bank’s customers can now change their transaction currency in the new online and mobile banking.
In cooperation with PZU, the new lending platform Cash was introduced, allowing employees of chosen companies to easily apply for a preferential loan, with monthly instalments collected directly from the employee’s (the borrower’s) remuneration. In addition, the Bank introduced a credit process with creditworthiness assessment based on solutions resulting from the PSD2. Using AIS, customers provide an access to their account history at other banks, which serves as the basis for determining their creditworthiness.
The business customer segment remains crucial for the Bank’s strategic plans. The corporate offer is adapted to the expectations of each segment of companies and uses modern customer acquisition and product processing channels. At the end of December 2019, there were 31,958 active accounts, that is 9,448 more than at the end of 2018 (22,510 accounts), which is an increase by 42% year-overyear. Just in the micro-enterprise segment, the share of online customer acquisition in Q4 2019 increased to 40%.
An automated process of iKonto Biznes and 4×4 account opening in the new Electronic Banking was introduced and a Trusted Profile registration service was added. Customers were granted access to a package management module for cash, domestic, international and economic packages available as part of the 4×4 account. This way they can independently select solutions best suited to their business needs.
Oferta dla mikro, małych i średnich firm oparta została na zautomatyzowanym procesie kredytowym i decyzji kredytowej w 20 minut dla pięciu form finansowania, a wnioskowanie o finansowanie zostało zintegrowane z otwarciem rachunku bieżącego, zamówieniem karty i uruchomieniem dostępu do bankowości internetowej.
Klientom z segmentu dużych firm Bank udostępnia różne rodzaje finansowania. Alior Bank traktuje każdego klienta indywidualnie i przygotowuje oferty dla konkretnych podmiotów. Bank rozpoczął wdrażanie podejścia branżowego poprzez wprowadzanie dedykowanych, uproszczonych polityk ryzyka dla wybranych branż oraz przygotowanie narzędzi i materiałów wsparcia dla sieci sprzedaży.
In response to changes in the external environment, rapid emergence of new technology solutions and growing customer expectations as regards innovating, the Bank implemented the blockchain technology as a tool for authentication of public documents provided to its customers. This way customers gained a transparent solution compliant with regulatory requirements, and Alior Bank made a significant step forward in the digitisation of document flow.
In 2019, the Bank implemented a number of projects resulting from the PSD2 and the Payment Services Act coming into force, which required banks to provide test environment and publish production interfaces ensuring a connection with the account information services and payment initiation services.
In 2019, the Bank continued investing in PayPo, a Polish FinTech offering deferred payments for online shopping. In addition, together with the banks PKO BP and BNP Paribas and two venture capital funds, the Bank invested in the Autenti company – an entity offering a platform for digital contract signing and electronic document circulation.
In 2019, 15 contracts with FinTechs were concluded, with 8 projects resulting from the RBL_START acceleration programme. In 2019, the second edition of the Bank’s startup programme had attracted more than 200 companies from all over the world, of which 11 were accepted as responding to the Bank’s business challenges related to main customer relationship building, advanced data analysis and acquiring new channels to offer banking products.
Dynamically changing customer needs count among the drivers of change in the banking sector. They are the reason why in 2019 Alior Bank introduced a new branch format meeting these expectations. It changes customers’ contacts with a bank branch entirely, through the maximum improvement of space comfort and functionality.