MULTICHANNEL BANKING

In a market that is evolving rapidly and to a considerable extent, technology is changing the way we do banking, where the emphasis is on an ever greater flexibility and adaptability. Today the customer's experience depends on every moment that they interact with the bank and every contact point they use. Banks are no longer places where customers go, but are services that are accessible anytime, anywhere.

With an integrated, multichannel approach, customers can use their bank the way they want: at their branch, over the phone with online operators, or through digital channels. At the end of 2016, some 6.4 million customers were using digital channels, up by 1.6 million compared to the start of 2014. The integrated, multichannel approach impacted the loans process, with over 15% of loans granted same-day, thanks to revised disbursement logics for real-time processing and the greatest possible use of customer data; this meant loans went up by 20% compared to 2015, and the number of non-performing loans went down by 15%. Overall, 60,000 applications from branches and the Online Branch were signed and approved in 2016 for remote services (debit cards, prepaid cards, credit cards except for Platinum cards, and some investment services).

BRANCHES

Branches are still the physical venues of Intesa Sanpaolo's distribution network, where customers can receive assistance in person, especially for more complex transactions. Considering the diversity of services offered on the various channels, branches in Italy are increasingly geared towards offering a focussed, personalised service with a high added value.

There are some 4,000 branches throughout Italy and 1,200 branches in central and eastern Europe and in the Middle East and North Africa.

Intesa Sanpaolo has a considerable presence in Italy, with market shares of at least 12% in most regions.

Since 2014, with the introduction of the new service model for the Banca dei Territori Division, branches have had different opening times and offered different customer services, to provide an optimal service and direct users to the quickest channel which best caters for their requirements. Branch layouts have also been transformed, becoming open places for customer engagement, meetings, communication and work. The new layout won the “Cerchio d’Oro dell’Innovazione Finanziaria” financial innovation award from AIFIn (1st in the category “Distribution channels and customer experience”). For more details, see “Social and relational capital – Offering valued service to customers” @).

Alongside its conventional branches, Intesa Sanpaolo has an Online Branch that is managed via 8 operating sites located throughout Italy (in Turin, Milan, Bologna, Padua, Naples, Lecce, Cagliari and Trapani) with nearly 700 employees (coordinating and bank staff), and another two operating sites for outsourcing, employing a total of 1,000 people. The Online Branch has become a sales management venue offering products and services: it works through direct channels (telephone, chat, video calls, email and social networks), and offers customers advice, making business proposals for bank cards, loans and investments.

ATMS AND SELF-SERVICE STAFF-ASSISTED BANKING

At the end of 2016, Intesa Sanpaolo had a network of more than 7,155 self-service machines in Italy, including ATMs, Cash and Deposit Machines (CDMs1) and Express-Banking Kiosks.

Customers can access a wide range of services ranging from cash withdrawals using all types of cards to account and card queries, mobile phone top-ups, payments of utility bills and taxes, SEPA transfers and payments for the main local public transport travel passes.

In 2015, customers could already activate debit, credit and prepaid cards directly from ATMs, as well as through Internet banking.

New services launched in 2016 from the new app include cardless and SOS withdrawals. Cardless withdrawals let customers make a withdrawal from the app, go to the ATM without their card, and carry out the transaction by QR code. SOS cash withdrawals let customers share a booking code generated by the app, via text message or WhatsApp, so that other people they know can make small cash withdrawals in emergency situations.

1 ATM: Automatic Teller Machine; CDM: Cash & Deposit Machine – an advanced version of an ATM that allows users to deposit cheques and cash and to make low-fee payments; Express-Banking Kiosks: machines that allow customers to make deposits, withdrawals and payments, where necessary with assistance from staff.

Market share per region of branches in Italy

Market share per region of branches in Italy

Updated in December 2016.

     

INTERNET BANKING

The new Internet banking platform and the new site launched in July 2016 feature restyled processes for main banking products (payment cards, personal loans, investments and mortgages).

The most important functions include the digitalisation of the financial advisory service, to support customers in real time via the Online Branch, with screen sharing and interaction with the operator, to deal with all customers' needs.

The new digital experience, culminating in the launch of the new Intesa Sanpaolo Online Bank, is part of a lengthy process towards a multichannel system, that will complete the approach of a “made-to-measure” bank for customers, with physical and digital channels combined, to access when and as they want.

mobile BANKING

At December 2016, approximately 4 million1 downloads of the Intesa Sanpaolo app had been recorded, up by 40% compared to the previous year. Today, the mobile app is used by some 1.6 million active customers, with an annual increase of 350 thousand customers.

The new “Intesa Sanpaolo Business” app and an app with bearer-card functions were developed and released during the year.

“Intesa Sanpaolo Mobile”, which is a spin-off from the “la tua banca” (your bank) app, has a new design and features for private customers, making it simple, quick and customisable. Besides day-to-day transactions (mobile phone top-ups, transfers, account transaction and balance queries), the app offers the new “SOS withdrawal” service, which lets friends or relatives withdraw money from any Group ATM using their smartphone.

On the security front, users of mobile phones with an Android operating system and biometric sensor can access their secure area of the mobile app with fingerprint recognition. This feature, already available since 2015 for iOS systems, makes it easier and quicker for customers to use the app, because they don't need to have their user code and pin with them all the time, and there is no risk of them losing their credentials.

1 Starting from the publication date of the individual apps in stores.

A MULTICHANNEL SERVICE FOR BUSINESSES

INBIZ is the service for businesses to manage their finances, accounting and administration over the Internet. From a single online platform, customers can access all Bank services, interfacing with the Intesa Sanpaolo Group's national and international network and in Italy can use Interbank Corporate Banking services.

During 2016, new services for remote invoice management were added to INBIZ, the remote banking channel for businesses. A year and a half after its launch, the “Anticipo Fatture Italia WEB” (online advance on invoices Italy) app has been used for 138,000 requests for payments totalling approximately 2.9 billion euro, and in the first five months since its launch, the “Anticipo Fatture Estero WEB” (online advance on international invoices) app has had 5,300 requests for payments totalling approximately 263.3 million euro.

Customers that use INBIZ can access features which can be used on the move, from the M-site portal. The service, which is entirely free of charge, enables customers to manage authorisation and shipment flows, view account movements and outcomes of orders, and provides an overview of liquidity. The service also locates the customer's nearest branch or ATM.

INSTANT PAYMENT

Intesa Sanpaolo has launched two payment services, in particular for instant payments.

  • GPI Swift Instant Payment enables customers to make international payments in euro and foreign currency, with amounts credited on the same day (depending on the time zone), plus added-value services such as payment status notification and confirmation of amounts being credited to the receiver account;
  • Instant Payment EBA gives customers a pan-European solution for instantaneous payments in euro, with sums credited within a few seconds of orders being placed.

In 2016, the definition of infrastructural rules for the system's operation was completed, and technical/organisational alignment was started.

A MULTICHANNEL SERVICE FOR INTERNATIONAL SUBSIDIARY BANKS

DigiCalThe DigiCal (“digital channels + physical branches”) programme was developed to consolidate interaction between physical branches and digital channels, to offer retail and small business customers of international banks a new way of accessing products and services and interacting with their bank. The programme offers a single, uniform service for the customers of the International Subsidiary Banks.

Digical introduces new distribution channels based on new technologies (Internet banking and Mobile Banking apps), drives new digital approaches in traditional areas (such as the Digital Desk used by affluent operators and Digital Banners to promote banking products and services in branch waiting areas), and increases the number of products and services for old and new digital customers.

In 2016, the activation of the services continued in various Group International Subsidiary Banks.

There was particular focus on the accessibility of digital channels, with the application of the “AA level” of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), making content accessible to a higher number of people with disabilities.

THE DIGITAL FACTORY: PROCESS INNOVATION

The “Digital Factory” initiative, which began in 2015, is entirely redesigning the Bank's main operating processes, starting from customer requirements. Innovation and digitalisation will take over, with a switch from Bank-defined processes to customer-led processes. This transformation, planned in the last few years, involves digitalising processes and focussing on keeping costs down and continually improving efficiency.

The initiative targets 35 of the Bank's priority processes, which currently involve 80% of colleagues, and which were selected based on two fundamental areas: business potential and digitalisation potential. The importance of customers in terms of their needs and expectations, on the one hand, and the complexity of the process and its actual potential for automation, on the other hand, have therefore both been considered.

Each process is redesigned based on four fundamental objectives: offering the best customer experience, radically transforming the process with a view to streamlining and digitalising it, rapidly developing the necessary technology, and introducing a new way of working. Synergy with other Group projects has been considerable, in particular with the “Digitalisation” project, that will reduce the environmental impact of hard copy documents at the Bank. Customers have been involved during all stages of the project through: engagement and feedback meetings; understanding needs and requirements through focus groups, interviews and targeted surveys; defining KPIs to monitor results in terms of customer satisfaction; testing developed solutions, with customer prototypes trialled in workshops. Process redesign involves multidisciplinary teams, comprising staff from all company functions affected by the specific process, who share work areas and times, for a specific period of time. This has made it possible to make the most of the Group's professional skills set, promoting new ideas and reducing design and development times. Twelve processes were managed in 2016, with four released to the Network and which are now fully operative.

Some internal surveys were conducted in 2016 interviewing personnel involved in process redesign. Respondents were extremely satisfied with the level of engagement of the Digital Factory in the process, which considers in full the needs of end users, including Bank customers, participants of focus groups and surveys held prior to each process redesign stage.

In September 2016, as part of the National Innovation Day, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella awarded the “Digital Factory” project the National Award for Innovation.

DIGITALISATION OF CONTRACTS

The contract digitalisation project continued, introducing a new way to sign documents for the sale of banking, finance and insurance products and services, with no need to print documents and contracts to send to customers or to file them. In June 2016, the target of eliminating hard copy signatures at all Retail and Personal branches was reached, with customers only signing on tablets (activated in branch by joining the service) or digitally (which they can also do independently through home banking), for contracts that have already been digitalised. Customers can view signed documents when they want, from Internet Banking or their email.

With this new process to sign documents for the sale of banking, finance and insurance products and services, digital signatures guarantee greater security, streamlined document filing and management, and benefits for the environment (see the section on “Natural capital” @).

 “BIG DATA” TO SUPPORT DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES

The Big (Financial) Data Project was developed to respond to the challenging context of an increasingly extensive and intensive use of data – for example with the introduction of the Single Supervisory Mechanism* – the Group is aiming to structurally improve the management of all Bank data. The project has two strategic macro objectivesi:

  • consolidate the control of risks, comply with new regulatory requirements and guarantee a response to requests from the supervisory authorities which are quicker and more accurate, thanks to more robust, automated quality controls; the possibility to obtain all Bank data from a single source; clear, formal “ownership” of all Bank data; quicker and more effective reconciliation of Group data;
  • generate economic value, levering innovative applications also with an “Advanced Analytics” approach, to improve business effectiveness; increase operating efficiency; optimise risk management; enable the Bank's evolution towards digital banking, with the development of an efficient, functional data platform.

The solution has considerable technological content: the data architecture of the entire Group is being reviewed, eliminating redundancies and guaranteeing consistent data on an information layer that will contain all main Group data when fully operative. The Project has also designed and implemented an overall Data Governance framework.

As part of the project, a training initiative – the Big Data Academy was set up, to develop skills and train future specialists (see the sections “Human capital”, “Training” @ ).

 

* Single Supervisory Mechanism: the new single supervisory mechanism overseen by the European Central Bank. In force since November 2014.