Banking in wartime

Andrea Urgolo, Chief Innovation & Digital Transformation Officer, Pravex Bank

Andrea Urgolo, Chief Innovation & Digital Transformation Officer, Pravex Bank

In our current world of great turmoil, learn how to run a bank in wartime can be a useful ability to add to our set of skills.

Wars come in many forms from skirmish to a localized conflict to a full-scale invasion like the one in Ukraine we all are facing now.

After the initial shock for such unexpected and unprovoked aggression, all citizens of Ukraine had to face several issues, from purchase of essential goods, to protection of their savings, to support friends and family who are in distress.

All these activities which are part of the basic financial needs in peace times have become overnight extremely difficult if not impossible in some areas of the country, think how a “no-brainer” cash withdrawal can become “super-difficult” while rockets fly around you.

Which are the challenges in terms of customer onboarding experience and how to innovate them?

Due to the contingency situation, all our efforts have been focused on two main pillars: how to board in the fastest and easiest way the new prospects and how to serve better the existing clients in the daily routine. We are one of the few International Bank in the country which means that in uncertain times it is considered, more than ever, as a safe haven for savings, salary payments, cards issuing.

To better serve the prospects, we jumped into the ultimate phase of innovation: give them the opportunity to open an account online without any paper circulation and branch visits.

We have been working on the integration between our Pravex mobile app and the DiiA app, and after some months of hard work in extremely difficult situation we reached our goal (Ukraine is very developed in terms of digitalization and DiiA is the official governmental repository where all citizens’ data are stored, in other terms it represents the official digital-footprint of each citizen).

Now everybody in Ukraine can open an account with Pravex Bank within minutes and without any efforts or costs, no papers to be signed, no uncomfortable visits to our branch network.

The same level of “dematerialization” is also offered for other products, once the relation is established, our client can open a saving account or apply for a fullfunctional virtual card, upload it in hisher digital wallet and link to AppleGoogle Pay without necessity to print a plastic.

I think only a few banks in Europe are capable to offer such feature to its clients.

Our digital onboarding program also benefits the existing clients, they can open a saving account or apply for a virtual card after allowing Pravex mobile app to link with their DiiA profile.

A cloud-based approach is mandatory

Like all companies, we had a business continuity plan and a crisis plan and it was really useful at least in the very first moments of the invasion even if, i must say, such large-scale war in the heart of Europe took us (and most of the civilized world I guess) partially off guard.

"Our digital onboarding program also benefits the existing clients, they can open a saving account or apply for a virtual card after allowing Pravex mobile app to link with their DiiA profile"

Fortunately, when the war broke out, we had just completed our migration programme and all data already uploaded in a safe cloud storage outside the country. Without a cloud-based approach your vital data are in danger but I still see that loads of companies are reluctant to use the cloud for their core business.

How to manage the network of physical branches and ATMs

This depends on the intensity of the fight and which part of the two is controlling the area. We shut down operations in all territories illegally occupied by Russia, and for territories controlled by Ukraine we have our branches regularly open with the binding rule that in case of rockets attack our colleagues must close the branch and run to the closest shelter. As a general rule, since the air-alert starts, the average time to impact is around 810 minutes, the nearest shelter must be within the range of 300 metres, if not we keep the branch closed and never open.

About ATMs, we signed together with all banks in Ukraine an agreement that allows all citizens to choose any ATM on the territory, without distinction, and withdraw cash without extra fees.

But, from this point of view, things get easier as Ukraine is way more developed in terms of digitalization than many countries in Europe and almost all citizens have a card on which the salary is provided or where financial aids are credited this makes the branch footprint and ATMs proximity becoming less and less relevant.

Banking in wartime also implies a different management of employees from an HR and work organization perspective

Maintaining relations with our Ukrainian colleagues has been for us the most painful aspect of the war.

On 24th February while watching on TV hundreds of rockets flying all over the country our main concern has been to stay in touch with our colleagues, give support to them and their families, prepare plans for evacuation of women and children.

For several months our first duty in the morning has been to count all the members of our respective teams, confirm their location and communicate to the IntesaSanpaolo Central Crisis Team if any of them missing, not reachable, or if any volunteered for the Army or the National Guard. 

In a few days, we could manage to relocate over 300 colleagues and family members in Europe, mostly in Italy, women and children because males cannot exit the country due to the martial law.

This has been possible only thanks to the unparalleled support we received from the parent company which took care of everything: from travel expenses, to accomodation costs, to any other need. This makes me really proud to work with the IntesaSanpaolo Group.

Second step has been to start working in remote to support our colleagues still in Ukraine. We literally rebuilt part of the bank in Italy (accounting, backoffice, all staff units) and this allows us to keep Pravex up and running in Ukraine… as I mentioned already, we could even find the way and the necessary energy to invest and innovate!

The impact of the war on the online banking and cybersecurity

The process of converting “standard” clients into “digital” clients already started a few years ago with the covid pandemic, the war just accelerated the pace. Also, because Ukraine is a very young country and pretty developed in terms of digitalization.

About security, we had to improve our defensive mechanisms mostly to contain cyberattacks from russian hackers but, so far, Im happy to say that we did not suffer any breaches.

Financial

Storage

HR

Business Continuity