Digital banking
Luboslava Uram, UniCredit Italy’s chief digital and information officer, and the group head of the bank’s retail business platform.
enhance our customer offering.” Once again, examine what UniCredit is doing and she doubtless has a point. In 2020, to give one example, UniCredit liaised with Taulia, an American fintech, to support customers with supply chain finance and cash forecasting, among other areas. More generally, UniCredit’s closeness to the fintech world can arguably be seen in recent hires. It’s surely no accident that the new head of corporate at UniCredit Italy is Massimiliano Mastalia – in a past life the co-founder of instant-lending fintech Prestatech.
everything from monitoring cash flows to integrating electronic invoicing – not a bad thing when 58% of Italians still prefer banknotes. From there, business owners can use Partner4Business to understand the costs of certain digitalisation schemes, for instance moving their data centre to the cloud. Not that the platform is digital-focused in the narrow sense of the term. By adopting the portal, after all, UniCredit’s clients can also get help on securing extra funding, while the bank also offers a range of training options. The point, in any case, is clear. “The Partner4Business portal creates an ecosystem where SMEs can gain support, information and services all in one place,” says Uram, “allowing them to be quicker and spend less effort in benefitting from local PNRR schemes.” Nor is this the only place where UniCredit is investing in Italy’s beleaguered business community. In April, for example, it expanded its relationship with Worldline, a French transaction services company. The updated arrangement will now mean UniCredit clients can connect their accounts in other banks throughout Europe via a single API. That’s shadowed by more practical assistance too: in September 2022, UniCredit said it was offering €5.6bn in loans to SMEs across Italy, Germany and Bulgaria.
“The Partner4Business portal creates an ecosystem where SMEs can gain support, information and services all in one place allowing them to be quicker and spend less effort in benefitting from local PNRR schemes.”
It helps, too, that UniCredit is being careful to keep a close eye on potential future partners. A member of Plug and Play since 2019, Uram says UniCredit uses the global innovation platform to “increase the testing of innovative fintech solutions at group level and to continuously benefit from fintech concepts and products that can improve banking processes and
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Back to school It seems clear, in short, that robust third-party relationships are helping UniCredit really drive digitalisation across SMEs – and secure staff that understand just how powerful new technology can be. Yet as Uram stresses, these external moves need to be shadowed by similar work at UniCredit’s corporate offices. As she says, Partner4Business may be typical of UniCredit’s outward steps towards digitalisation, but the “core” of the bank’s digital journey is nonetheless happening internally. “The core of our digital strategy,” she says, “is to build standardised and reusable software products, which will give us scale and the possibility to standardise our operations across all geographies.” To that end, UniCredit has launched Cosmos, what Uram calls an “internal toolbox” to support UniCredit developers building new products. “It is a key enabler,” she explains, “a set of reusable, composable, purpose- driven and standardised components for building our digital business products and services in a scalable way.” In practice, Uram continues, that means the bank’s engineers – scattered as they are across various places – can easily search and reuse useful components when designing new products. “The digitally-native product creation and design process will ultimately support the client experience,” Uram adds, “making it faster while delivering greater operational efficiency.” With tools like that at her back, at any rate, it’s probably unsurprising that Uram seems so buoyant about where UniCredit is headed. As she puts it: “I am very passionate about my work and get easily drawn into exciting new ideas.” It presumably helps, moreover, that Uram and her colleagues are pressing ahead with a further range of new digitisation schemes. Following on from Cosmos, one of the most interesting involves training staff in new technical roles. Known as UniCredit University Digital, the programme is available to all employees and will offer a raft of upskilling and reskilling opportunities. “My priority is not only engaging our people to participate as trainees,” explains Uram, “but also sharing my expertise with them to encourage and support their development.” Combined with more client-centric initiatives, notably around providing a united customer experience across different digital channels, and I can’t wait to see what my Google search reveals next. ●
Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
UniCredit
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