Banco Bpm focuses on digitalisation. It is growth lever for SMEs

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor)- Technology has long been considered a strategic lever for growth; this becomes even more evident when dealing with SMEs. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which have always been considered the backbone of our country's economy, need to invest in technology in order to be increasingly competitive in an increasingly challenging market, especially the international one. It is within this framework that Banco Bpm plays an important role in the economic-financial landscape of our country. "Ever since 2017, the year Banco Bpm was founded, we have focused on technology and innovation," explained Luca Vanetti, head of the Marketing and Omnichannel structure and coordination of Banco Bpm's Digital Transformation Programme (.DOT). A choice dictated by the awareness that "since we have a clientele that is strongly represented by SMEs, for them digitalisation is a real engine for development, a lever for maintaining sustainability over time in order to be competitive. At the same time, it is an excellent ally for preventing or at least analysing a series of factors that could make the growth and development path of companies more bumpy in the future'. One of the first actions put in place by Banco Bpm was the launch of the Dot Programme, with the aim of 'accelerating innovation, improving processes from a digital and omnichannel perspective, offering new products and services to customers, and promoting a corporate culture oriented towards innovation and collaboration'.

The bank's commitment on the digitalisation front is evidenced by the latest business plan, which provides for an allocation of resources amounting to EUR 650 million in technology. "Of these," explained Vanetti, "250 are connected to transformative interventions in the digital world. A concrete example in this sense is the recent entry into the piattaforma Fideiussioni Digitali", the first Italian ecosystem for the digital management of the life cycle of surety guarantees based on Blockchain technology launched and implemented by Surety Shield, a subsidiary of Cetif Advisory, a spin-off of the Research Centre of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. "The adoption of the Fideiussioni Digitali platform represents a significant milestone for the digitalisation of the sector, offering advanced tools for notarisation on Blockchain, process traceability and fraud prevention". Banco Bpm "makes more and more specialised tools and lines of financing available so that companies that decide to invest in innovation can do so while also being able to take advantage of all possible facilities. I am thinking, for example, of those provided by Sace or Simest or with the Central Guarantee Fund for SMEs. With constant updates we are at the side of companies to help them choose the innovation methods and programmes to put in place'.

On the business banking services front, 'the lion's share is certainly our app, which is now used by more than 60% of our business customers; a percentage that continues to grow. We strongly believe in this tool, which is continually being enriched and updated, and which allows not only the management of one's accounts, but also the request and signing of loans, all remotely". In the world of payments, 'we have also made a strategic choice, creating Numia, a new digital payments hub with Fsi and the Bcc Iccrea Group'. This is a joint venture created to create the second independent national player in the digital payments sector, especially e-money. As a result of this strategic partnership, Banco Bpm has contributed its e-money activities to Numia, becoming a shareholder with a share of28.6%, like Iccrea. Fsi holds a controlling stake in the order of 40% in the new entity, which aims to grow in the fintech landscape and further digitise the country. Numia 'manages almost nine million payment cards, over 400 thousand Pos and tens of billions of transaction volumes per year. We are also developing new services to improve collection methods with e-commerce, we have equipped all our corporate clients with new generation Smart Pos and the next step will be to bring Pos directly to mobile. All this is a clear example of how much Banco Bpm is also investing in the world of payments. But we are not stopping there: as far as management systems are concerned, we were among the first to integrate our banking platforms with the management system used by an individual company. A choice that simplifies business operations and at the same time, thanks to a very fluid user experience, it is possible to digitally bring invoices to the advance".

In the diverse world of technology, a key and enabling factor for business growth is certainly artificial intelligence. "It is a lever of development," explains the manager, "and there should be no demonisation of this technology. However, at Banco Bpm we are convinced that digitalisation and artificial intelligence are a means and not an end. As of today, we use Ai mainly to support our network people and in the activities of our digital branch, and the choice is motivated by the fact that we want to maintain what is a distinctive trait of our bank, that is, to consider the human factor as winning. This does not mean having a conservative approach, also because, as our digital platforms show, 80% of the requests for assistance that come from our customers are already managed through solutions that do not require an operator with direct assistance. Undoubtedly, a field where Ai will have an increasing application will be our smart lending: with artificial intelligence, companies will be able to have an accurate assessment of any investments, facilitating and streamlining disbursement times.