Priority is given to small and medium enterprises. The way UKRSIBBANK supports entrepreneurs within the project Diia.Business
After a period of adaptation to the challenges of war, banks increasingly focus on supporting small and medium enterprises. This support has various forms: from the introduction of profitable credit programs and new digital services to educational projects and mentoring.
Business is going through a difficult period: despite adaptation, new challenges constantly arise, and the needs of companies and entrepreneurs change. Specialists of UKRSIBBANK sure, that a hybrid approach to collaboration will help better understand clients, provide them with more relevant solutions and expertise, and help them to grow during the crisis.
Laurent Dupuch, Chairman of the Management Board UKRSIBBANK, told Forbes about the range of projects, that BNP Paribas Group implemented together with the Diia.Business and Mastercard to support Ukrainian business.
Small and medium enterprises are critical drivers of Ukraine’s economy. During the war, entrepreneurs and managers are showing incredible resilience, adaptability and perseverance.
Banks, in turn, quickly responded to new challenges and needs and offered timely the right solutions so that entrepreneurs could save their businesses.
However, the first and most obvious business need is still the ability to continue working without interruption. Companies have reorganized their processes, considered backup plans for relocation or whatever, but continue to prepare for new challenges — blackout, for example.
There is also a growing need for financial mentorship, expertise and networking for a more confident market entry. To help entrepreneurs find answers to their questions, UKRSIBBANK together with the and Mastercard launched special consultation areas in Diia.Business. Here every entrepreneur can receive information about financial solutions for the development of his business. Such consultation areas have already worked in Ternopil, Uzhhorod, Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Odesa. Ahead a new location.
Laurent Dupuch participated personaly the opening ceremony in Ternopil and talked to local entrepreneurs.
For us this is a new, more personalized way of communicating with business. We hope to strengthen cooperation with entrepreneurs and expand the network of Diia.Business centers
The purpose of Diia.Business regional centers — to stimulate the entrepreneurial community and become an educational and networking hub where local entrepreneurs could transparently exchange experience and learn. The Bank will help companies and managers with financial expertise, in particular will help understand better business construction from the perspective of financial planning as well as advise entrepreneurs on development opportunities.
The opportunity to personally communicate and exchange experience with small and medium enterprises throughout the country is an approach that not only helps entrepreneurs deepen their financial expertise and develop their business, but also allows the Bank to better understand and serve clients in this segment.
For example, “Finansyst” is one of the educational programs that UKRSIBBANK supervise together with Mastercard. As part of the initiative, the Bank’s experts provide a series of educational meetings with entrepreneurs in the centers and online platform of Diia.Business.
Discussions are devoted to financial and business topics and are in an open communication format. This is a long-term strategy aimed at developing the business community and strengthening the financial literacy of business owners.
During several events, it became clear that entrepreneurs are interested in a fairly wide range of issues: from strategy and marketing to financial regulation. Interest arises in matters of trade, import and export, transactions, payment through terminals, personal capital, investments, etc.
For the Bank, this format allows to understand the needs of clients, develop relevant solutions and offer a more flexible approach. Experts of UKRSIBBANK believe that the time of permanent solutions has long passed — the priority should be continuous communication with clients and reassessment of the relevance of bank services and products according to their changing needs.
An important topic is digital services, because it is not only internal operations of the company, but also interactions with clients. Often, companies are afraid to switch to digital solutions, but understand that they will not be able to work without them in the future. Especially in wartime, when you need to be as flexible as possible. The role of the Bank in this matter is to provide all the necessary information and help entrepreneurs with digital solutions.
In particular, several years ago bank established application for entrepreneurs — UKRSIB business with online access to all services. Among other projects that are still under development is an electronic POS terminal that will be available on a smartphone. Besides, the Bank continues to invest in digital onboarding for small and medium entreprises.
A multi-channel approach involves supplementing traditional bank operations with digital options, rather than replacing them completely. Experts of UKRSIBBANK sure, that the clients must have a choice how to access services: via branch or via online application.
We adapted to the situation very quickly to effectively serve our clients and we were able timely to find unprecedented solutions to unprecedented problems. After such a change, there is no going back to the previous ways of working, and I would like this power, performance and engagement become permanent. Therefore, we are working on introducing a new mindset
The Bank also supports the “Women in business” program, which aims to help women-entrepreneurs in the implementation of their business plans and ambitions. Such projects are of great importance during the war, because women found themselves in a particularly difficult economic situation.
The Bank plans to continue to support social and business initiatives and cooperate with the Ministry of Digital Transformation to strengthen the opportunities of small and medium enterprises in Ukraine.
The article is issued in Forbes Ukraine magazine #5 December- January 2023