For Banque BPCE, innovation not just something new, but an improvement in the existing processes and systems too:
French bank Groupe BPCE states on its website ‘innovation is not necessarily disruption or new invention. It is also the improvement of existing processes and systems and the seeking out of new partners to develop our presence in new value-creating markets’. The goal is to constantly provide more effective responses to the expectations of the customers and employees.
The bank’s new strategic plan, BPCE 2024, underlines that innovation is one of the 3 key principles underlying the plan. The plan is designed to make the Group a leader in banking, insurance and asset management for the benefit of all.
Groupe BPCE, short for Banque Populaire Caisse d’Epargne, is the fourth largest French banking group today, after it came into being in 2009 by the merger of 2 major retail banking groups, Groupe Caisse d’Épargne and Groupe Banque Populaire. It is also the 7th largest in Europe, and the 19th in the world by total assets. It has more than 8000 branches spread across France under various brand names and caters to the banking needs of 70 million customers.
INNOVATION IN FUTURE OF WORK
Groupe BPCE has stressed that it will use innovation to help it realize the targets of the new strategic plan, most importantly with regard to data and the future of work. The bank’s Chairman of the Management Board Laurent Mignon has said with the help of the ‘Digital Inside’ strategy, the bank has made digital solutions an integral part of all its banking and insurance businesses.
In all its digitization efforts, the bank projects 2 objectives – to make things simpler for the customers when handling their day-to-day banking operations (making credit transfers, adding new beneficiaries, categorizing expenses, managing their bank cards, etc) and pursuing their life projects (procedures for taking out home loans or signing up for consumer credit, or equipment loans for professionals, etc) while simultaneously providing them with optimal security (strong authentication, etc) and to make things simpler for the customer advisors to help them provide value-added advisory services.
ONEY, A UNIQUE DIGITAL BANK
One of the highly successful projects of the bank is Oney, a digital bank with high expertise in payment solutions and innovative financial services. The bank claims it has a dual culture as a banker/retailer. It is a different kind of bank, supporting the daily lives of 8 million customers by offering them simple, secure and innovative in-store and online shopping experiences. It is present in 12 European countries, it has expertise in, besides payment, financing, digital identification and insurance solutions. Oney is also the leading provider of 3 or 4-times split payment solutions for online or in-store shopping in France and 3 other European countries. Besides banking related activities, it also offers fraud detection and digital identification services and has a co-branded card that has 7 million private label and bank cardholders in Europe.
NATIXIS A DIFFERENT MODEL
One unit of the bank that stands out for high-end tech induction is Natixis, a subsidiary, which was originally a cooperative bank born out of the original merger between Banques Populaires and Caisse d’Epargne. Natixis is a corporate and investment bank and provides financial data. Natixis has also acquired fintechs PayPlug and Dalenys, which helped it handle the surge in online payments. Natixis has 2 core business divisions – Natixis Payments and its fintechs. Natixis Payments was the first to operate Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and instant payment in France, as it creates ‘payment as a service’ solutions, covering the entire payment value chain.
NEW GENERATION SERVICES
Today, Groupe BPCE is at the threshold of offering new-generation digital services, aided by extensive use of data and AI. It is on the way to capture technology-focused banking markets like open banking, cybersecurity, the green economy and advisory services in expense and savings management.
The bank has been the first in France to make public data sets derived from its entities available to the general public. More than 170 public data sets are now available. It is also operating an open API web portal. The public datasets are available free of charge to analysts, journalists, researchers, teachers, students, and several other groups. The bank could use its payment data through public data sets to create a tourism ecosystem.
INNOVATION DEPARTMENT
In order to have an easier implementation of the strategic plan, the bank has strengthened its digital processes by merging its Data and Artificial Intelligence activities and creating a new Innovation Department. The department has 3 core teams – an innovation team concentrating on developing new sources of revenues, incubating internal and external strategic projects and taking equity interests in tech firms; a Data and AI team focusing on designing, developing and managing the implementation of services and tools that leverage the potential of data; and a Customer Digital team in charge of designing, developing and managing the digital channels and services for retail, professional and corporate customers of the bank.
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This article has been compiled based on publicly available information on the web, particularly the bank’s own website.
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