Digital leadership and a client-centric business model made ING Bank Slaski an ideal partner for Poland’s SMEs during the first 12 months of the pandemic. Its ability to support clients and maintain growth during a time of market turmoil makes it the worthy winner of the award for CEE’s best bank for SMEs.
The Dutch subsidiary was one of the first to offer payment holidays to banking, leasing and factoring clients from the SME segment as the first wave of the Covid crisis caused widespread liquidity concerns, a facility that was taken up by nearly a quarter of its customers.
In May, however, the challenge for Polish banks changed following the government’s announcement of plans to provide financial support to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises affected by the pandemic. The disbursal of the loans was assigned to the Polish Development Fund (PFR), with the country’s banks acting as intermediaries. Along with the rest of the sector, ING Bank Slaski had to create within weeks new digital processes to enable clients to apply for the state subsidy.
Where the bank stood out from the crowd was in its willingness to go the extra mile for its SME clients. Staff worked intensively with customers – both remotely and face to face once offices opened in Poland again in June – to advise them on accessing financial support.
“We organized many webinars and seminars to help clients understand how to file their applications,” says Ewa Luniewska, vice-president of the management board of ING Bank Slaski. “We didn’t know if there would be enough funds for all the companies, so we had to assume that time was of the essence.
“As the deadline approached we were working around the clock because we knew we couldn’t fail our customers. We couldn’t have a crash on our site – it all had to work perfectly.”
ING Bank Slaski’s dedication paid off. Despite being only the number-four player by balance sheet in Poland, the lender notched a volume of PFR to SME fund transfers well above its market share. “It was independent confirmation that we are the trusted main partner for them,” says Luniewska.
Unsurprisingly, the influx of cash relieved many companies’ liquidity shortage, while at the same time the uncertain economic situation put a dampener on appetite for investment, leading to a slump in demand for bank lending.
Outstanding loans to SMEs fell by more than 4% last year for the banking sector as a whole. ING Bank Slaski bucked the trend, however, recording 1% portfolio growth for the period, while at the same time keeping risk costs below the market average.
This outperformance was partly due to the introduction of a new fully digital process for credit applications, which enabled businesses – including those without an ING Bank Slaski account – to obtain financing of up to Zl6 million within 48 hours.
The lender also leveraged its digital expertise to help SME clients make the transition to a remote business model, providing support in the creation of online shops and enhancing its popular e-commerce payment tool, Imoje.
Take up of ING Bank Slaski’s online accounting tool for entrepreneurs also continued apace, particularly after the app was opened to all Polish businesses in July, while business-to-business sales and information platform Aleo also saw a surge in demand during the pandemic.
ING Bank Slaski also upgraded its core mobile app for enterprises, ING Business, which last year became the first in Poland to use Google’s Flutter technology.
“For us, digitalization is not a tool to cut costs,” says Luniewska. “That plays a role, but the most important thing is always to service clients well. We believe our SME clients expect us to be available to them all the time and that they should be able to access all their products in a digital way.”
The success of this strategy is reflected in the numbers. By the end of December, the bank boasted 74,000 SME and mid-sized corporate customers, up 9% on a year earlier, while its entrepreneur client base grew by 6.5% to 408,000.
