Carlo Messina and Lando Maria Sileoni
“The closure of the branches is negative. Ground is left to Banco Posta”
“With the new business plan, Intesa aims to create a new model of business into a bank that can transform itselfover time, if he will, in a fintech“. Lando Maria Sileoni, the general secretary of the Fabithe largest union in the banking sector, comments in an interview with Affaritaliani.itthe decision of the group led by Carlo Messina to create a new all-digital bank, Isybankinside the Galaxy Understanding. This choice, however, will require for Sileoni “contractual guarantees be at the group level both at the level of national contract, because such a transformation cannot be managed without certainties and defined and shared rules“.
THE INTERVIEW
Today Intesa-Sanpaolo presented the new business plan. Before going into the merits, let’s try to frame the news of the group led by Carlo Messina in the more general context. What is happening in the Italian and European banking sector, also from your Fabi observatory?
“The Italian banking sector, the traditional one, is at the center of a profound transformation which must be implemented as soon as possible. Italian banks have the objective of not further depressing their profitability, which is already low, when compared with the European market and with the large international banking groups. This is a vision that we do not share, but with which we are forced, as a trade union, to confront. The pandemic has given a strong acceleration to changes: I would not speak of changes in the banking model, but rather of a radical change of model of business. This is a fundamental political step that all banking groups will have to deal with. In addition, the low interest rates, if not it will intervene in the short term ECBthey could remain for a long time and the markets consider the presence of the physical distribution networks of the banks obsolete, which will also have to adapt to an improvement in IT structures “.
Carlo Messina and Lando Maria Sileoni
And then there are the giants of tech…
“Yes, great competition is knocking on the doors and banking groups are afraid of it: new operators like Amazon, Facebook and Google which aim to conquer market shares. The big technology companies, in this context, continue to exert strong pressure on bank profitability “.
What about fintech? How will it have a negative impact on the banking sector?
“The development of the fintech is the other topic that is having a strong impact on the banking sector. But we need skills and investments that are not within the reach of all Italian banks. Investments in technology take on a primary role to effectively manage risks, to offer new services, also through a more efficient organization of work. This is the big picture and so now the banks like Understanding And UniCredit who first presented the industrial plan, are preparing to face a new era, the digital one, which in the coming years will change the face of a sector that is currently grappling with the definition of strategies and other industrial plans that will shortly they will come. Clearly, there are banking groups that are more reactive and others a little in trouble, but everyone knows perfectly well that they will have to take an interest in artificial intelligence, cloud, big data you hate fintech “.
The work will obviously suffer …
“Female workers and bank workers are well aware that bank branches and the provision of financial services are undergoing and will undergo profound changes. Agencies, branches will become service centers that will favor the management of relational activities, I hope with added value, and of more complex operations. New points of contact will inevitably grow, where clients and consultants will be able to talk to talk about insurance, savings and loans. The reduction in the use of cash and checks will inevitably lead, according to bank management, to reduction of branches. In short, the way of managing the customer will change and the bank will turn into a digital platform with a whole series of services to offer. Big data and artificial intelligence will adapt to the needs and requirements of certain customers. The digital bank will affect banks’ profits mainly because it forces the bank itself to redesign its business model. That’s why I talked about earlier historical model change of business and not the bank model. There digitization will reduce costs, shift revenues to operators more efficiently and effectively because we will try to satisfy the needs of increasingly evolved and digitized customers also due to the need that the pandemic has imposed on behavior.
But aren’t there any risks that digitalization will replace the human factor?
“The difference between us and the banks is precisely this: the qualified banking presence can never be replaced by artificial intelligence. From our point of view it is essential that banks redesign their organizational and management structure because to keep their customers in such a fierce competition context it will be the professionalism and competence of bank managers are fundamental, none excluded. Reactivity and flexibility will become the cardinal points to manage market changes, new competitors, to improve profitability, which remains the indispensable and essential element for maintaining the bank’s economic autonomy. The magic word for us at Fabi will be the following: lDigitization is not and will never be a question of technology alone, which is not always in the possession of banks alone, but of people. I repeat: people and innovative processes, investments, skills to change the organization of work for the better, which must be adapted to the new context. The time factor will be strategic because the change must include training programs for the growth and revision of individual skills and also because technology and people represent a powerful combination to transform the way people do. business. The Italian banks that are moving towards digitalization and the specialization of activities are focusing a lot on the time factor, do it quickly and well, but in my opinion it will be a medium-long term path especially if compared to the response times of the sector with respect to changes. Banks, therefore, will have to exploit the affinities existing between the daily activities of people, branches and direct contact with the customer with digital activities. Digitization as a whole will lead to new jobs and consequent increases in productivity, but also setbacks for those who will see the new job disappear and may not have adequate skills to find new employment. This is a fundamental step, because all female and bank workers must know that, like Fabi, we will never leave anyone behind. And that we will manage all the changes so as not to allow the banks to take advantage of a favorable context, to the detriment of the workers.
And does the new industrial plan presented today by Intesa meet the expectations you have just described?
“I believe that Intesa’s industrial plan is based on three pillars industrial it’s a fourth pillar more innovative and more social: the first is the derisking, that is, the reduction of credit risk; the second is the cost reduction; the third is thedigital aspect. The fourth pillar is theattention to the environment, social issues and governance principles. The latter aspect will also be carefully considered by our initiative Banking Social Index, with which we will measure what banks really do to combat poverty. Regarding the reduction of credit risks, Intesa wants to get as close as possible to zero, ie zero Npl in the budget. If it achieves this, it will come to be among the top three banks in Europebut at the same time it poses itself, politically, as a point of reference for the ECB itself, which for some time has been asking Italian banks for an important relief of npl in their balance sheets. The other banks will be forced to do the same: if Understood, the other groups will have to adapt, above all because Understanding will trace with even more determination the direction already declared by the ECB on the subject npl. It is clear that in the Italian scenario the theme of aggregations is always topical. Banking groups in Italy look at each other with a certain diffidence and in the industrial plans there are and will be provided for corrections in the course of work also depending, not only on the success of the same plan, but on the moves and decisions of the other competing groups “.
READ ALSO: – After UniCredit, Messina is also pushing digital (Isybank) and promises 6.5 billion in profits in 2025 (over 5 in 2022; an average annual growth of 11.8%). In all, over 22 billion in cash dividends to be distributed to shareholders. The new business plan
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