Lukas bank founder targets shopping malls

By Aleksander Nowacki

This week will see the launch of a new retail bank. Eurobank is to open 50 outlets in supermarkets across the country and plans to double that number by the end of the year. Mirosław Łukasiewicz, who owns the majority stake in the bank through his Wrocław-based firm LOOK Finansowanie Inwestycji, plans a public debut in two to three years to boost the firm's equity, which currently stands at a modest zł.170 million.

Łukasiewicz is known as the founder of Wrocław-based Lukas Bank, acquired last year by Credit Agricole. Funds gained from the transaction are the exclusive source of finance for his new venture. Łukasiewicz rules out an investment by a financial or strategic investor in the near future.

"(The timing of) our debut is connected to the plans of the competition," Łukasiewicz says, apparently referring to HSBC's acquisition of the Polish Credit Bank (PKB). The retail sector has consistently outperformed the corporate segment of the banking industry, which has suffered in the economic downturn of the past two years. Eurobank's owner expects the market to improve even further in the approaching months, and envisages the bank reaching break-even point in just a year.

The mainstay of the bank's strategy is going to be easy access to consumer credit, says Sławomir Łukasiewicz, Eurobank president and brother of the chief stakeholder. The loans, ranging from zł.500 to zł.100,000, will be available to supermarket shoppers along with the Visa card. The loans will be repaid in equal installments, which makes it a different proposition from the typical credit card. The bank is also working on introducing insurance products.

Eurobank's offer is targeted at medium- to lower-income customers. Sławomir Łukasiewicz listed mBank, Millenium and Lukas bank among its main competitors.

"But we do not measure ourselves by the existing market players' standards," he says. "We want to create our own market." The bank's strategy is based on the innovative location of its outlets and low costs. Eurobank will use an IT system developed in cooperation with Poznań-based software maker Comp-Win. It has already been tested at Lukas bank and is a factor that directly contributes to Eurobank's low costs.

Another factor is the location of branches in existing retail outlets. According to a recent survey by the PBS Sopot research firm, 20 percent of bank customers have changed their bank due to the inconvenience of branch locations.

Sławomir Łukasiewicz said that the bank has employed 670 people and is planning to increase that number to 1000 by the end of the year. This is thought to be the largest recruitment drive in the country this year.