Banking

Casting an eye over the financial industry’s 2023 landscape, the need for banks to increase their investments in deeper modernisation comes into view. Three areas at the top of their agendas should be accelerating fintech partnerships and ecosystem expansion, strengthening cyber-security defences and driving progress towards ESG goals.

nternational Banker is joined by Mr. Patricio Diez de Bonilla, Chief Executive Officer of Compartamos Banco, to discuss the bank’s work with women entrepreneurs, Micro and Small & Enterprises and increasing financial inclusion in Mexico.

Union Bank of the Philippines’ mission to become the country’s largest and most profitable consumer bank is becoming more likely by the day. Much of its success is due to its years-long digital journey, but digitalisation isn’t its end goal. Three of the bank’s top executives explain where it is today and where it aspires to be tomorrow.

Poland’s Bank Pekao’s vision of being “the best together” encompasses many goals, from augmenting profitability to increasing the ranks of its mobile-banking customers. While technology has become integral to its progress, as Mr. Jaroslaw Fuchs explains, Bank Pekao has not lost touch with its core: personal relationships with its clients.

Oliver Wyman’s study, commissioned by the European Banking Federation, of the costs of the European Union’s banking regulation and supervision on eurozone banks relative to those in the US has revealed that European banks operate under comparative disadvantages, impacting their abilities to fulfil their mandate of financing the economy.

Costa Rica’s Banco BCT has been rewarded for its commitment to providing excellence in its suite of products and services with its current status as the nation’s biggest private bank, largely owing to its success in contributing to the progress and development of numerous individuals and companies, as B Grupo Financiero BCT’s CEO, Álvaro Saborío, explains.

Ecuador’s Produbanco has mastered the two principal trends transforming the banking industry—digitalisation and sustainability—and the results are evident in its meteoric growth and rising dominance in the region. As the new era of banking sharply remodels banks, Produbanco serves as an illustration of what a determined bank can achieve.

For Compartamos Banco, Mexico’s largest microfinance bank, success is measured by how well it financially equips the country’s neediest entrepreneurs, especially women, so that they can energise the economy through small communities. Chief Executive Officer Patricio Diez de Bonilla stresses how the human sense guides every decision the bank makes.

The best banking institutions in retail, commercial, private and investment banking are highlighted, along with two outstanding CEOs from their regions.

Open banking is evolving into a catalyst for economic growth and inclusive financial services. By granting greater access to financial data, it’s revolutionising the way we bank and empowering financial institutions to offer enhanced products, services, and customer experiences. While the benefits for customers are many, the rewards for governments and regulators supporting open banking are as significant.