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Chief Innovation & Digital Transformation Officer at Pravex Bank
Banking in wartime
In our current world of great turmoil, learning how to run a bank in wartime can be useful to add to our skills.
Wars come in many forms, from skirmishes to localized conflicts to full-scale invasions like the one in Ukraine we all face now.
After the initial shock of such unexpected and unprovoked aggression, all citizens of Ukraine had to face several issues, from purchasing essential goods to protecting their savings to supporting friends and family who were in distress.
All these activities, which are part of the basic financial needs in peaceful times, have become extremely difficult overnight, if not impossible in some areas of the country; think how a "no-brainer" cash withdrawal can become "super-difficult" while rockets fly around you.
What are the challenges in terms of customer onboardingexperience and how to innovate them?
Due to the contingency situation, all our efforts have been focused on two main pillars: how to board the new prospects in the fastest and easiest way and how better to serve the existing clients in the daily routine. We are one of the few international banks in the country, which means that in uncertain times it is considered, more than ever, as a safe haven for savings, salary payments, and card issuing.
To better serve the prospects, we jumped into the ultimate phase of innovation: give them the opportunity to open an account online without any paper circulation and branch visits.
We have been working on the integration between our Pravexmobile app and the DiiA app. After some months of hard work in an extremely difficult situation, we reached our goal (Ukraine is very developed in terms of digitalization, and DiiA is the official governmental repository where all citizens' data are stored, in other terms, it represents the official digital-footprint of each citizen).
Now everybody in Ukraine can open an account with Pravex Bank within minutes and without any efforts or costs, no papers to be signed, and no uncomfortable visits to our branch network.
The same level of "dematerialization" is also offered for other products; once the relationship is established, our client can open a saving account or apply for a fully-functional virtual card, upload it in hisher digital wallet, and link to AppleGoogle Pay without the necessity to print a plastic.
I think only a few banks in Europe are capable of offering such a feature to their clients.
Our digital onboarding program also benefits existing clients; they can open a saving account or apply for a virtual card after allowing Pravex mobile app to link with their DiiA profile.
A cloud-based approach is mandatory
Like all companies, we had a business continuity plan and a crisis plan, and it was really useful, at least in the very first moments of the invasion, even if, I must say, such a large-scale war in the heart of Europe took us (and most of the civilized world I guess) partially off guard.
Fortunately, when the war broke out, we had just completed our migration programme, and all data was already uploaded to a safe cloud storage outside the country. Without a cloud-based approach, your vital data are in danger, but many companies are still reluctant to use the cloud for their core business.
How to manage the network of physical branches and ATMs
This depends on the intensity of the fight and which part of the two is controlling the area. We shut down operations in all territories illegally occupied by Russia, and for territories controlled by Ukraine, we have our branches regularly open with the binding rule that in case of a rocket attack, our colleagues must close the branch and run to the closest shelter. As a general rule, since the air alert starts, the average time to impact is around 810 minutes; the nearest shelter must be within the range of 300 metres; if not, we keep the branch closed and never open.
About ATMs, we signed together with all banks in Ukraine an agreement that allows all citizens to choose any ATM on the territory, without distinction, and withdraw cash without extra fees.
But, from this point of view, things get easier as Ukraine is way more developed in terms of digitalization than many countries in Europe, and almost all citizens have a card on which their salary is provided or where financial aid is credited. This makes the branch footprint and ATM proximity become less and less relevant.
Banking in wartime also implies different management of employees from an HR and work organization perspective
Maintaining relations with our Ukrainian colleagues has been, for us, the most painful aspect of the war.
On 24th February, while watching on TV hundreds of rockets flying all over the country, our main concern has been to stay in touch with our colleagues, give support to them and their families, prepare plans for the evacuation of women and children…
For several months our first duty in the morning has been to count all the members of our respective teams, confirm their location, and communicate to the IntesaSanpaolo Central Crisis Team if any of them are missing, not reachable, or if any volunteered for the Army or the National Guard.
In a few days, we could manage to relocate over 300 colleagues and family members in Europe, mostly in Italy, women and children, because males could not exit the country due to the martial law.
This has been possible only thanks to the unparalleled support we received from the parent company, which took care of everything: from travel expenses to accommodation costs to any other needs. This makes me really proud to work with the IntesaSanpaolo Group.
The second step has been to start working remotely to support our colleagues still in Ukraine. We literally rebuilt part of the bank in Italy (accounting, back office, all staff units), and this allows us to keep Pravex up and to run in Ukraine; as I mentioned already, we could even find the way and the necessary energy to invest and innovate!
The impact of the war on online banking and cybersecurity
The process of converting "standard" clients into "digital" clients already started a few years ago with the covid pandemic; the war just accelerated the pace also because Ukraine is a very young country and pretty developed in terms of digitalization.
About security, we had to improve our defensive mechanisms mostly to contain cyberattacks from Russian hackers, but so far, I'm happy to say that we did not suffer any breaches.
