OREANDA-NEWS. March 05, 2013. Most enterprises-customers of "MEGABANK" are the small and medium businesses. About the characteristics and complexity of their service, achievements and successes in working with this customer told the head of banking services of "MEGABANK" Andrew Onopko.

- Please describe the general situation in the banking sector of Ukraine in 2012: the conditions under which banks had to work and what is the situation in this area today?

- The results of the operation of the banking system in 2012 have been drawn. Ukrainian banking sector after three years of losing finally declared a handsome profit. The result of "MEGABANK" also contributed to this figure.

But the economic situation in the country is constantly changing. All last year we lived in this change. Naturally, the banking sector reacts to them speedily: technologies are developing and improving, new credit facilities are appearing, increasing demands of customers to the bank, increasing competition between banks. And the price leverage to attract new customers for the banks has long faded into the background, bringing in non-price competition. Banks are focusing on quality and service delivery methods, individual approach to customer service.

"MEGABANK" is not lagging behind in this regard. One of the priorities of the bank is corporate services, which is just the basic management of banking services, whose work I supervise. For us the constantly changing economic environment and fierce competition are the stimuli for active client business development, design and implementation of new forms of banking. Our "trumps" are a high-quality banking service, the atmosphere of business communication, giving rise to the confidence of clients, commitment to providing customers with the most convenient conditions for work and provide a wide range of services and professional management, which aims to improve customer service, which allows to take into account the individual characteristics of each customer's business and provide timely advice on cash management services, foreign exchange control, credit.

- With what result of your division in 2012, whether the tasks have been performed, what services are most in demand?

- In terms of financial performance, then, I think, in the past year, we worked well. "MEGABANK" managed to show a positive trend of its key financial performance indicators. In addition, their growth rates are far ahead of trends in the Ukrainian banking system as a whole. Thus, if the total liabilities of banks to business entities in 2012 increased by 9%, the account balances of our clients – business entities for the year increased by 25%.

In addition, the activity of the corporate customers on current accounts in national currency has increased, causing turnovers to grow by more than 10% compared with 2011. A 21% increase in the deposit portfolio of corporate clients of "MEGABANK": on January 1, 2013, it made more than UAH 402 million. Almost by 28% increased balances on current accounts of corporate clients, and at the beginning of 2013 they amounted to UAH 800 million.

Regarding the demand for our services it should be noted that, given the collapse by banks of lending programs and tight liquidity for most entities came to the fore the interest to agreements with deferred payment. "MEGABANK" timely reacting to the market, has successfully implemented such areas of banking services, as trade finance and documentary operations. Besides, the rest of the range of banking services has not lost its relevance for corporate clients.

- What are these services? Please list the main services provided by your division.
- We use modern approaches to corporate banking and focus on an integrated approach: provide cash management services to local and foreign currency, deposit services, as well as trade finance. Our division also can execute the contract installation of remote maintenance of bank accounts "Client-Bank", an agreement on salary card project and to receive payments. So we have concentrated all the basic range of services that can be useful to a business entity. So we made sure that coming to us, the corporate client could use all banking services, relevant for his business.

- How do you build a customer base in a highly competitive environment?
- There are levers that allow us to provide an annual increase in the customer base. But let it remain our professional secret. The only thing I can say – we try not only to meet the needs of our customers, but also to anticipate them. And often we offer to our clients a more rational way of solving non-standard financial challenges facing his business. We have also come to understand that in a competitive environment among banks is important not only to increase the number of corporate clients, but also to control the quality of its customer base. And this is possible only having as much information about the customers. Therefore, we pay a lot of time to a comprehensive study of the needs of our business customers and the search for common ground of our mutual economic interests, the implementation of which is just many banking transactions.

As a result of such cooperation benefits not only the bank, but, above all, the client, who gets in the face of our Bank a sound financial partner, mutual understanding and, as a consequence, the justification of hope conferred on its financial agent. This invokes the desire to increase cooperation by buying additional services from the bank, the bank attracting their related structures and partners. After all, only the constant readiness of the bank to the development of products to the customer, and perhaps even better than the demand, allows the bank to meet the expectations of its customers and provides them with a competitive advantage.

- Which sector of the economy often are your customers?
- More than 85% of corporate customers are the small and medium business. In their industrial structure there is a large share of agriculture, services, construction and wholesale trade. Our clients, which are now around 9000, have about 10,000 open accounts in national currency and over 1.6 thousand – in foreign currency.

- What are your proposals for the maintenance of current accounts distinct from the other banks?
- Speaking directly about the benefits of our cash management services, we offer business entities various tariff plans that address the needs of a particular customer, the value of its turnovers and the specific activity. Also in "MEGABANK" are developed tailored packages for non-banking financial institutions and entrepreneurs who use microcredit in the bank.

Of course, the bank is interested in selling a range of services, so to customers who are willing to connect more than one of our services, the issue of reducing their costs can be considered. In other words, we have an individual approach to each client, which may involve non-standard terms of cooperation, the installation of individual prices and tariff plans. In addition, our strategy in corporate customer service is based on the principles of economic feasibility, partnerships and involves the formation of a high-quality customer service.

Our main advantage – we work quickly and smoothly, so as soon as possible we can understand and realize all the wishes of our customers. In addition, service quality, customer individual consideration and kindness in dealing with it are the keys to success.

- Is in demand with clients the exchange service in "MEGABANK"?
- Of course. Moreover, it is the presence of this type of service has a greater impact on the final decision of a client to work with "Megabank". And no wonder, because the presence of direct correspondent accounts of banks in major currencies with leading banks in the U.S., Europe and the CIS provides a maximum speed of payments. We work with our clients on the net exchange rates online, that is, willing to offer them a rate that affects the financial services market at any given time of the day, and not to fix a known position profitable for the bank. May even be an option, when a client fixes the boundary price of currency buy/sell, and we try to satisfy his request. The bank also provides assistance and advice to support customers even at the stage of foreign trade contract, because the issue of currency control for the customer is not less important than the benefit of the transaction.

- If we talk about deposit services, what types of deposits are currently the most popular among corporate customers, has the demand changed for this service in the last year?
- Today is a great demand for short-term deposits for a period of one month to six months. Most of the customers due to constant fluctuations and uncertain expectations for the financial services market do not risk accumulating the money in the bank for a longer period. Also popular are the so-called "current" deposits where the customer is able in a free mode without penalty to withdraw funds from the savings account or to replenish it. All these requirements are met in full by the current proposals of "MEGABANK".

As to interest rates, we have always considered approach to their establishment, have never made them unreasonably low and never pursued a number of competitors who have incorrectly inflated them. With our stability customers trust us, so for many of them the interest rate on deposits is not the first role in the decision to place funds in "MEGABANK". Here we offer important for the client risk-free and effective investment.

In addition, we try to be as transparent as possible in establishing fees for current deposits. In most cases we offer our clients a service rather than bureaucratic procedures of deposit line with a simpler alternative – setting higher fees for balances on current accounts. Thus, our clients are free from the need for constant communication with the bank regarding the withdrawal or replenishment of their deposit account, creation and sign-off of payments on this. In fact, thus the customers of "MEGABANK" have a versatile product that combines the efficiency of the current account with the benefits to augmenting the funds in the deposit account.

- Are there any special deposit programs, which feature "MEGABANK" from its competitors?
We always tried to differ, so we consider that the model of the placement must be discussed with the client, and not try to force conventional stamps of deposit banking. Therefore, bearing in mind what type of activity our client is engaged in, we develop variants of deposit services.

- What is customers’ demand of remote access to their accounts?
- Today, more than half of our customers (about 65%) prefer to interact with a virtual bank, managing their accounts remotely via electronic payment system "Client-Bank". Therefore, all users of the system of electronic payments automatically receive benefits for the banking. We also take care of our major customers who cash from bank accounts controlled by multiple levels of control: the owner, the manager, CFO, etc. For these clients, our software package provides a unique opportunity to further permission for participation by the top manager or the owner.

Furthermore, we are constantly working on speed and comfort of electronic payment system "Client-Bank", and do not cease to develop mechanisms to protect the accounts of our customers from attacks of cyber hackers. The last is particularly relevant in light of the information (including the National Bank of Ukraine) about the intense cases of cyber hacking. Therefore, in the current year "MEGABANK" introduces more ways to protect remote access service to client accounts and several technologies are being finalized. But this does not in any way characterize our remote access system as an imperfect one. On the contrary, today I can say with confidence that this system is reliable, and subject to all the rules of use of its account of our customers are adequately protected from access to various scams.

- And what is meant by all the rules of using the system of remote access to accounts? Maybe you could advise something in this regard to the economic entities?
- In most cases, the so-called unauthorized transfer of funds from customer accounts that are maintained by remote service systems can take place only in the event of failure of regulated standards of information security. In this regard, I would like to remind all users of such systems of the need to comply with data protection in the workplace and storing tokens. One should limit itself to visit other web sites from computers that are running the remote control system of a bank account, and to pay special attention to install licensed anti-virus protection.

- What other products offered by your division, can be attributed to high-tech and what are their advantages over similar products from competitors?
- Undoubtedly, these are payment cards of "MEGABANK". Business entities can take advantage of a corporate credit card of our bank, which allows travel payments, household purchases, entertainment and other expenses and to save 20% on the payment of commission to the bank. Also PJSC "MEGABANK" offers the most suitable conditions for the implementation and maintenance of projects of payroll with cashless payments using plastic cards. Unlike most of our competitors, we offer card products not only of international payment systems ("Visa", "MasterCard"), but cards of the National system of electronic payments, which have a greater degree of protection and have a longer duration, which does not require re-issue of the card.

- What are the challenges facing the division of banking services in 2013?
- Before the division of banking services, in addition to increasing the financial performance of our business, there is the continuous task of increasing the client base of business entities and quality service to existing corporate clients. In the highly competitive banking market environment the task is not easy. But I am confident that our focus on the needs of the corporate client, the use of modern approaches to his service, the establishment of sustainable partnerships with customers will help achieve the goals of our division, the growth of its customer base, and most importantly – meeting the needs of the clients.

Reference. Professional advice for all potential clients – entrepreneurs on banking services can be accessed on tel. (057) 715-52-79 or at the address: vul. Artema, 30, 2-nd floor, suite 220. Besides there is an information services at the bank, and on tel. 0-800-50-44-00 you can also receive the information about bank’s activity.