Corporate Banking

Corporate Banking offers a wide variety of financial services to large and medium-sized enterprises as well as to local government entities with an annual turnover equal to or exceeding PLN 40 million, or in the case of whom the Bank’s exposure is equal to or greater than PLN 12 million, as well as to entities operating as part of multinational capital groups.

Corporate Banking Customers are classified into 4 key groups:

• Polish corporations with an annual income between PLN 40 million and PLN 600 million (or between PLN 60 million and PLN 600 million in the case of business entities related to agricultural production) or with a credit exposure greater than or equal to PLN 12 million (or PLN 25 million for business entities related to agricultural production);
• international Customers (companies operating in international capital groups);

• large Polish corporations (listed, with annual turnover of more than PLN 600 million and an investment banking potential);
• public sector and financial institutions.

Additionally, an Agro sub-segment and a Non-agro sub-segment function within the aforesaid groups.

Corporate Banking conducts operations based on stable Customer relations, special emphasis is placed on the high standard and quality of provided services, as well as on the competence of the sales network and product specialists.

Corporate Banking services were provided in 2020 by 9 Regional Corporate Banking Centres located in: Warsaw (two), Łódź, Gdańsk, Poznań, Wrocław, Katowice, Kraków and Lublin. As part of the Regional Corporate Banking Centres, there are 25 Corporate Banking Centres located in the largest business centres in Poland, thus ensuring a wide geographical and sector coverage. Within these branches, consultants provide services to corporate Clients locally. After-sales services for the Clients of the Corporate Banking segment are also carried out via the Enterprise Service Telephone Center and online banking system.

Corporate Customers may use numerous financing and transactional banking products relying on the expert support of the BNP Paribas Group.

The basic products and services offered to corporate Customers are:

In the first quarter of 2020 the Bank’s Corporate Banking business was concentrated mainly on dynamic business development. The development strategy was implemented, which assumes:

• acquisition and prompt acquisition of new Customers, as a basis for further development of cooperation,
• development of Customer transactionality and increase in the number of products used by Customers (cross-sell of individual product lines),

• acquiring and servicing companies with international operations,
• building the position of a leading bank in foreign trade and specialized finance (trade finance / specialized finance, global trade solutions).

The first quarter of 2020 in the Corporate Banking area ended with excellent sales results and a high 12% y/y growth rate of income.

In March 2020, due to the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Bank focused on the rapid implementation of a number of measures to ensure the operational efficiency and safety of Customers and employees in this situation. These actions included, among others:

• a smooth transition to remote work for most employees,
• introduction of split-teams in Corporate Banking Centres,
• development of the self-service zone in BiznesPl@net Internet banking,

• development of remote channels for accepting / signing documentation,
• Customer support with frequent contact and dedicated online information programs on changes in the law and the possibility for the Bank’s Customers to take advantage of government assistance programs.

The Bank’s activity focused primarily on supporting Customers within the framework of government aid programs addressed to Polish enterprises:

In addition, the Group offered its Customers the so-called credit moratoria – a possibility to defer payment of principal or capital-interest instalments on all credit products, as well as on leasing and factoring products offered by other BNP Group companies operating in Poland.

In the second half of 2020, the Bank’s activity in the area of ​​Corporate Banking focused on returning to new business under the conditions allowed by the restrictions and remote working. Business activities produced very good sales results in new loan production, which in the second half of 2020 was 108% higher than in the first six months of the year. As a result, new loan sales reached 2019 levels throughout 2020.

In the last quarter of 2020 the Bank continued a series of popular information, education and business conferences aimed at supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and corporations in foreign expansion – the so-called Foreign Trade Programme (PHZ). The main theme of the PHZ is to share knowledge about foreign markets, their specifics and to support Polish entrepreneurs and show positive examples of foreign expansion into new markets. The 2020 PHZ meetings concerned the German market and markets in the Far East, while the last conference was devoted to the British market and the subject of Brexit. All conferences were conducted in the form of webinars and met with very high interest from clients.

In 2020 further digitalisation and process optimisation activities were continued:

• a new version of the Biznes Pl@net system was implemented and functionalities were of remote addition of new system users by the administrator, on the client’s side, and several electronic product applications were introduced;
• a fully remote Customer onboarding process based on the electronic signature was implemented which does not require a face-to-face meeting with a Bank employee or the use of paper documents. The above solution is our response to the clients' expectations related to the pandemic. We believe that the solution is consistent with our motto „Bank of Green Changes”;

• the possibility of signing most of the documents with an electronic signature has been introduced, including using the Autenti platform;
• the automation of after-sales processes was gradually implemented and tools supporting employees were developed.

Bank offers fast and comprehensive services related to guarantees and letters of credit, based on dedicated IT solutions.

In 2020, at the request of Corporate Banking Customers, the Bank:

• issued 5,839 bank guarantees, with a total value of PLN 3,296 million,
• opened 1,350 import letters of credit with a total value of PLN 680.2 million and handled 408 export letters of credit with a total value of PLN 685.4 million issued by other banks for those Customers.

As at 31 December 2020, deposits from Corporate Banking Customers amounted to PLN 23,267,474 thousand and were lower by PLN 1,809,641 thousand (by 7%) than at the end of 2019. The share of current accounts in the portfolio structure increased (by 35 p.p., up to 93%), while the share of term deposits and overnight deposits decreased compared to December 2019 (by 13 p.p., down to 6% and by 21 p.p., down to 1% respectively).

The net value of the Corporate Banking segment’s net loan and advances portfolio on a consolidated basis amounted to PLN 22,122,328 thousand as at 31 December 2020, i.e. 4% below the end of 2019.

The Corporate Banking segment generated in 2020 a gross profit of PLN 542,411 thousand (compared to PLN 587,737 thousand in 2019, down by 8%).

The net banking income of Corporate Banking segment amounted to PLN 1,092,555 thousand and was higher by PLN 13,810 thousand or 1% than in 2019. This result accounted for 23.2% of the Group’s result on banking activity in the analyzed period.