mBank draws line between new and old guard
It could be that e-banking is finally taking off.
And it could be that even old-line banks are serious about serving customers better today. But signs point to both progress and still-shabby customer service.
At the recent EuroForum retail banking conference, you could have heard a pin drop when Bank Rozwoju Eksportu (BRE) retail banking chief, Slawomir Lachowski, talked about mBank's recent rollout.
Even the questions were careful. One person asked if Lachowski hadn't lost his marbles by paying out such high interest payments, sure to result in minuscule profit for BRE.
"I think that question must have come from one of our competitors because what we've done was a shock for them," Lachowski said afterward. "Nobody in the past has made an offer based on price. But we thought this was the major element of a competitive advantage for us especially if (other) banks are earning 12% on deposits."
Lachowski's peers couldn't have been surprised. Simon Nellis, an equity analyst in London for Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, did a rave review of mBank weeks earlier. BRE had caught the competition sleeping by focusing not just on technology but on price, he said, with interest payouts to mBank clients two times those of Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci Bank Polski and Bank Pekao.
And Nellis said mBank appears to have learned from its British predecessor, Egg, whose promotional interest rates squeezed out most profit. The BRE e-bank has a profit cushion of 3-4% on every deal, he said.
Down the street at the downtown office of Bank Pekao, however, lines of customers still snaked around and around. A U.S. telecom lawyer married to a Pole recounted one recent three-hour-long saga there. Her husband, who waited in line with her, was the one who was bemused. He didn't do lines anymore. He had long since left banks that didn't give him service when and how he wanted it. (He's currently a Handlobank client, and a bit apprehensive about what Citibank will offer when they substitute their own e-banking service.)
When the American finally raised hell with the Pekao manager on duty, asking why there wasn't at least a number system for customers, the manager said it would cost too much money, and Pekao needed to save money.
And what about saving customers' time? Not on the table, the telecom exec said. She continued to raise a ruckus, and suddenly was shown a separate door for "favored" higher income clients. "Just like the past," quipped her husband.
Gregory Wierzynski is raising money for a Yale University prize named after a Polish-American scholar, Szymon Sadowski. The two of them founded the Yale Polish Society in 1997. The prize will go to a graduating Yale student with "outstanding commitment to Polish culture, history and language." Sadowski was a sophomore when he learned he had cancer. He fought to keep studying and to keep nurturing the Yale Polish Society, which grew from its six-person start to a 45-member "active community organization," Wierzynski said.
Weeks before Sadowski died last year he was granted his degree. The Yale Slavic Studies department created the commencement prize in Sadowski's name, with Wierzynski a key person in getting it funded.
Wierzynski grew up in Poland and the United States. His father, Maciej Wierzynski, now edits Nowy Dziennik in New York. His mother Eva owns a consulting business. He knows all too well some of the wrong-headed overseas stereotypes about Poland. Instead of bemoaning them, he is combatting them creating the Yale Polish Society and now trying to finance the Szymon Sadowski Prize as one way to help educate about Polish history. And that's invaluable.
This is the last "TableTalk."
It's been wonderful to work with so many of you WBJ readers on news nuggets about the unfolding drama of life in Poland. Soon, I'll begin writing a new column on people who are making a difference here. So keep those news tips coming (psimpson@it.com.pl) and thanks!
