Integrated Report 2021

Corporate Banking

Segmentation

In 2021, 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 60 million, or in the case of whom the Bank’s exposure is equal to or greater than PLN 18 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 greater than PLN 60 million or with a credit exposure greater than or equal to PLN 18 million (or PLN 40 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 € 150 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.

Distribution channel

The Corporate Banking area operates on the basis of stable relations with clients, and particular emphasis is placed on the high standard and quality of services provided, professionalism, specialised competencies of sales network employees and product specialists.

The sales network for the Corporate Banking area in 2021 consisted of 6 Corporate Banking Regions located in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań, Katowice, Kraków and Lublin. Within the Regions there were 30 Corporate Banking Centres and Offices located in the largest business centres in Poland, thus ensuring a wide geographical and sector coverage. Within these offices, client advisors serve corporate clients locally. In the second half of 2021, in order to further improve the quality of service and to tailor the services offered even better depending on the specific nature of clients, the specialisation of individual Corporate Banking Centres and Offices into centres dedicated to serving domestic clients or international clients was introduced.

In Q4 2021, the Bank conducted a strategic review of the organisational structure in the Corporate Banking Area, resulting in the following changes from 1 January 2022:

  • the existing 6 Corporate Banking Regions were consolidated into 3 Regions,
  • the Strategic Client Division was created, including international clients, the largest Polish corporations, financial institutions and selected public sector entities.

These changes are intended, on the one hand, to better address the needs and specificities of the respective customer segment and to better exploit synergies between SME customers and medium-sized corporate customers (MID CAP), and on the other hand to simplify the internal organisational structure. After-sales service for Corporate Banking segment customers is provided through a dedicated Corporate Customer Service Office. Access to products and services is offered through modern online and mobile banking systems. In addition, a new central unit, the Premium Customer Service Office, was established in 2021 to provide the highest level of after-sales service to strategic Corporate Banking customers.

Main achievements in 2021

  • Increase of banking profit by +5.9% y/y despite dynamic changes in the environment and continuing COVID-19 pandemic
  • Increase of cash management income (+8.6% y/y)
  • Dynamic growth of revenues from financial markets products (+16.6% y/y)
  • Business and operational activities with extensive use of secure remote working formula, online and mobile banking channels and remote customer service tools
  • Promoting the use of electronic signatures for internal processes as well as interactions with clients
  • A clear improvement in customer satisfaction and the Bank’s rating as measured by the Net Promoter Score (+12 y/y)
  • Further improvement of customer service processes in the Corporate Customer Service Office – the centre of support and post-sales customer service:
    • First Contact Resolution (FCR) indicator for e-mail orders and telephone calls was implemented
    • a mechanism has been introduced for informing clients about the execution time of supported orders and the person executing the order
    • transactional research for executed mail orders has been implemented (possibility to assess NPS of each executed order)
    • a standardised response to customers has been introduced
    • entering orders on behalf of the client during a phone call if the matter cannot be resolved during the phone call
    • the possibility for customers to assign/change their PIN has been implemented (PIN on the IVR)
  • In the second half of the year, a specialisation in the service of domestic and international customers was introduced in Corporate Banking Centres and Offices, to ensure an increase in the quality of customer service and use of the BNP Paribas Group standards in the service of international customers
  • Further development of the GOonline Business system, in particular:
    • provision of the Accounts module (e.g. list of accounts, history of accounts (including management of the list view), management of accounts (naming, sorting, etc.)
    • to make the new Export and Import Collection modules available to customers
    • development of the Loans module (e.g. for printing schedules and presentation of PFR subsidies)
    • to provide customers with a new login page
    • unifying channel names within the GO Business ecosystem for business customers: GOconnect Biznes – H2H solutions, GOmobile Biznes – mobile banking, GOonline Biznes – online banking
    • development of the self-service module for customers in GOonline Biznes: adding new types of instructions and automation of processes on the Bank’s side, such as a fully digital instantaneous process of opening auxiliary accounts
  • Implementation of fully digital and automated processes for requesting, handling and cancelling financial subsidies granted to customers under the PFR 1.0 and 2.0 Financial Shield Programmes
  • Extending digital onboarding of paperless customers to include accounts for non-residents

Product offer

The Bank provides a full range of financing and transactional banking products to corporate customers using the experience and know-how of the BNP Paribas Group.

  • cash management,
  • investment of surpluses,
  • financing,
  • service and trade finance,
  • online and mobile banking,
  • structured finance for mid-cap companies,
  • real estate financing,
  • investment banking services,
  • financial markets products,
  • factoring offered in cooperation with BNP Paribas Faktoring Sp. z o.o,
  • leasing services offered in cooperation with BNP Paribas Leasing Services Sp. z o.o,
  • services for public sector entities and institutions.

In the second half of 2021, a new product – an overdraft facility with a maximum base rate (MSB) responding to the upward trend in interest rates – was made available to customers as part of the credit offering.

Out of concern for the environment and as part of the implementation of the sustainable development policy, in 2021 the Bank expanded its offer to customers within the framework of green and sustainable financing (photovoltaics and RES projects, investment loans Green Energy and UNIA+, technology loans, the EKO-FIRMA programme with profit, leasing of photovoltaic installations, Sustainability Linked Loan – SLL).

Business line development in 2021

The year 2021 in Corporate Banking was a period of intensive efforts directed at further increasing the scale of our business and strengthening our market position. This was particularly important after 2020, when the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic slowdown translated into a decline in client business activity and the Bank’s performance.

In 2021, in a difficult economic environment related to the persistent COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank continued to support Corporate Banking clients under government aid programmes targeted at Polish enterprises:

offering non-refundable subsidies to industries particularly affected by the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, the programme is worth PLN 13 billion. In the first quarter of 2021, the Bank provided customers with a fully digital opportunity to apply for and receive subsidies;

offering non-refundable subsidies of up to 75%, programme value PLN 100 billion. In the second quarter of 2021, the Bank provided customers with a fully digital process to settle and redeem subsidies received, then will continue to handle the repayment process of the unredeemed part of the subsidies for 24 months.

Traditionally, as in previous years, also in 2021 the Bank continued to organise information, education and business conferences under the series called Foreign Trade Programme (FTP). The main theme of FTP 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 FTP conferences in 2021 were on the subject of „Expansion into foreign markets through E-COMMERCE”. Due to the ongoing restrictions in connection with the ongoing pandemic, the conferences were conducted in the form of webinars and met with very high interest from clients.

In 2021, the adopted business growth strategy was based on:

  • acquisition and activation of new clients,
  • development of transactionality of customers and increasing the number of products used by customers (cross-sell of individual product lines),
  • development of credit action,

 

  • acquisition and servicing of companies conducting international business,
  • building the position of a leading bank in providing foreign trade and specialist finance services (trade finance / specialized finance, global trade solutions).

The above activities have resulted in very good sales results including:

  • 905 new customers were acquired, i.e. +4% y/y
  • new sales of credit limits amounted to nearly PLN 10.8 billion, i.e. +20% y/y

 

  • the volume of the Customers’ deposit portfolio increased by PLN 8.6bn, i.e. +37.2%, reaching PLN 31.6 bn at the end of December 2021.

The measures taken ultimately translated into an increase in the result from banking activities of +5.9% y/y.

As part of its Corporate Banking activities in the area of sustainable financing, the Bank concluded several important loan agreements. In July, the Bank signed one of the first Sustainability Linked Loan (SLL) agreements in the European logistics industry. This was a 5-year €225m syndicated loan for logistics operator Raben Group, in which the Bank acts as Sustainability Coordinator. The bank has also financed the solar power portfolio of R.Power, the largest Polish developer of photovoltaic projects.

In 2021, the Bank also continued to work on scaling up digitisation and automation of processes, which included:

  • the GOonline Biznes e-banking system was successively developed – new functionalities and modules were implemented or extended (Accounts module, Export and Import Collection module, Loans module) and a new system login page was made available,
  • new self-service solutions were introduced for customers in GOonline Biznes: new types of instructions were made available, an automatic process of opening auxiliary accounts was implemented,
  • the remote onboarding process for customers based on an e-signature has been extended. It does not require a physical meeting with a Bank employee and the use of paper documents. Non-resident customers were also included in the process,
  • the KYC periodic recertification process has been improved by providing customers with an electronic Recertification e-Application to support this process.

Bank guarantees and letters of credit

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

In 2021, at the request of Corporate Banking customers, the Bank:

  • issued 5,103 bank guarantees, with a total value of PLN 3,952 million,
  • opened 1,290 import letters of credit with a total value of PLN 1,031.2 million and handled 417 export letters of credit with a total value of PLN 718.9 million issued by other banks for those customers.

Commercial volumes

As at 31 December 2021, deposits from Corporate Banking customers amounted to PLN 31,597,965 thousand and were PLN 8,562,766 thousand or 37.2% higher than at the end of 2020. In the structure of the portfolio, the share of current accounts decreased (by 6.9 p.p., to 86.3%), with a simultaneous increase in the share of time deposits (by 5.4 p.p., to 11.7%) and savings accounts (by 1.4 p.p., to 2.0%).

The net loan portfolio of the Corporate Banking segment on a consolidated basis amounted to as at 31 December 2021 PLN 24,655,759 thousand, up 12.1% over the balance at the end of 2020. The increase was mainly in overdrafts (highest growth rate of 28.4%), investment loans and leasing.

Deposits and loans – Corporate Banking*

in PLN’000 31.12.2021 31.12.2020 change y/y
PLN’000
change y/y
%
Current accounts 27,269,707 21,473,020 5,796,687 27.0%
Saving accounts 14,545 437 14,108 3227.5%
Term deposits 3,692,061 1,437,117 2,254,945 156.9%
Overnight deposits 621,652 124,625 497,027 398.8%
Accounts and deposits 31,597,965 23,035,199 8,562,766 37.2%
Investment loans 14,871,172 13,691,947 1,179,225 8.6%
Overdraft facilities 7,672,517 5,977,687 1,694,830 28.4%
Lease receivables 2,071,598 1,984,999 86,598 4.4%
Factoring 38,796 334,945 (296,149) (88.4%)
Other loans 1,677 1,417 260 18.3%
Net loans and advances 24,655,759 21,990,996 2,664,764 12.1%

Gross profit of Corporate Banking segment

The Corporate Banking segment generated a gross profit of PLN 607,691 thousand in 2021 (compared to PLN 542,412 thousand in 2020, an increase of 12.0%). This was due to higher banking profit, lower cost of risk and lower tax on financial institutions.

The result from Corporate Banking activities amounted to PLN 1,157,209 thousand and was higher by PLN 64,655 thousand or 5.9% compared to 2020. This was due to an improvement in net fee and commission income and net trading income as a result of, among other things, changes in pricing policies and higher customer activity, particularly in the second half of 2021. The segment’s result from banking activities represented 24.1% of the Group’s result from banking activities in 2021.

Gross profit of Corporate Banking segment*

In PLN’000 12 months ended
31.12.2021
12 months ended
31.12.2020
change y/y
in PLN’000
change y/y
%
Interest income 557,923 569,678 (11,755) (2.1%)
Fee and commission income 320,643 285,997 34,646 12.1%
Trading and other income 278,643 236,879 41,764 17.6%
Income on banking activity 1,157,209 1,092,555 64,655 5.9%
Impairment losses (79,021) (68,331) (10,690) 15.6%
Operating expenses and amortisation and depreciation (267,819) (261,585) (6,233) 2.4%
Expense allocation (119,088) (124,395) 5,307 (4.3%)
Operating result 691,282 638,244 53,038 8.3%
Tax on financial institutions (83,591) (95,832) 12,242 (12.8%)
Gross profit of the segment 607,691 542,412 65,280 12.0%

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