“We are becoming fast, convenient and customer-focused”

TBI Bank’s strive to become a Next Generation Digital Lender starts from the inside of the origination. That is what Petr Baron CEO of TBIF Financial Services, the company owner of TBI Bank, explained in an interview with the online edition of the influential Bulgarian Manager magazine. TBI Bank introduced the Next Gen Digital Lender slogan at a media event this April. It is a clear statement of the transformation the bank is currently going through.

This is the full interview for the Manager magazine:

Mr. Baron, how do you see the Bulgarian banking services market compared to other European markets?

The Bulgarian banking market is not that different from the others in the European Union. It is regulated in a very pragmatic way, it is balanced and competitive, but the environment is also favorable for development. Perhaps the biggest difference is that internet banking is not as relevant as in other parts of Europe. If you believe the statistics in Bulgaria the percentage of usаge is below 10, while in countries like Denmark and the Netherlands it reaches 90. We at TBI Bank though look at this data as an opportunity – as the example of some Asian markets shows, users can jump directly to mobile banking.

From which markets your bank operates in, can you get good business expertise and in what direction?

TBI Bank is part of 4finance, Europe’s largest online and mobile consumer lending group, operating on major markets like Scandinavia or Spain. We ourselves have branches in Bulgaria and Romania, with the ambition together with 4finance to offer banking services to other markets in the EU. We are constantly gaining digitization experience from 4finance. This is key – we see how fintech companies are now entering their most interesting phase. GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) are now part of the financial ecosystem and traditional banks are also becoming more transparent to their customers. We look at these innovations in the most developed markets, take the experience of 4finance – and in the last two years have attracted great forward-looking professionals in our team.

What are the risks and what are the benefits of a bank operating online?

We are living in a fast moving world and have less and less time to be spending in branches and offices. Online and mobile banking are also very convenient. But there is something else – we banks can now offer tailor-made and not mass products. We at TBI Bank are developing the infrastructure to deliver the required services when and how our customers need them. Digitalization helps you offer not only to offer the sizes S, M, L and XL but special products for everyone. The risks from the digitalization are for those players that don’t deliver good enough services. The brand alone won’t mean that much anymore. 10 years ago, there was advertising that said: “The chances are bigger for a person to go to jail rather than to change his bank.” This is not the case today – the winners of the changes in the environment will be the companies that offer the best services – and this can only happen if you put clients at the center of the business relationship.

Does “Next generation” exclude the mature, conservative consumer and how do you address him?

Not at all. We have customers across the full spectrum. Sure, we will be offering digital solutions, but we will continue to operate through our branches and service all customers. Still, they all have different needs and our goal is to deliver the right product to the right customer through the right channel. For us the Next Generation Digital Lender slogan is showing the way we are transitioning as an organization – fast, convenient and customer-focused. Even the mature and conservative ones among them will appreciate this.

What is your dream for TBI Bank over the next 5 years?

We have a vision of how we believe the banking services are going to develop in the next five to ten years. It is a phenomenal opportunity for TBI Bank and we want to play a very strong role in the changes of the financial services environment. Тhe customer will always be the focus of all our actions. All banks have to understand that the times where they were simply pushing products to the customers are over. I will be happy if in five years’ time we at TBI Bank offer our clients quick, convenient and accessible solutions over all channels – traditional and digital.