Marin Bivol, Regional Director of HUB Centru at maib, in an interview with journalist Pavel Zingan.
Marin, hello. I know you are the director of one of the most important maib HUBs offering services for SMEs. Which HUB is under your management?
I am the Regional Director for the Central area, which includes the bank's branches in Chișinău, where more than 6 thousand small businesses are concentrated (sales up to 1 million EUR) and HUB Centru - a team of professionals located in maib park (headquarters), where financial solutions are offered to more than 600 medium-sized businesses (sales over 1 million EUR, some of them exceeding 1 billion MDL), including large international organisations.
But isn't maib's Corporate Division responsible for large customers with over 100 million MDL turnover?
Yes, in general, but there are exceptions. In these situations, a customer has expanded with the support of the Business Banking division, and its turnover has increased significantly, but the service continues in the HUB. It also happens when the regional team has managed to attract a new corporate customer with whom we are already developing long-term financial relationships.
Does the term 'servicing' refer absolutely to all operations?
As we are the most digital bank in Moldova, according to the international financial publication "Euromoney" (for example, a 100% digital account opening process has been launched, which allows any customer to open an account at maib without coming to the bank), we try to ensure that customer visits to the bank are only when necessary. Branches operate on a self-service basis, including for lending to micro-enterprises. But hey, the HUB comes into play when it comes to the essential stuff for SMEs.
How many members are in the HUB Centru team?
Eight customer Relationship Managers are responsible for the quality of customer relations. Most of them have extensive experience in the banking sector, some with over 20 years in maib, so each is a true professional. The daily complex situations make our team an essential part of the "accelerator" for developing the bank and the economy.
How did customers react to the change in the way they are served? Until 2019, the "personal manager" concept only existed for large companies.
In fact, since 2020. Initially, personal managers for corporate customers worked in the bank's branches, but later, it was decided that the work in regional HUBs should be centralised to improve their efficiency. Undoubtedly, customers have only benefited in terms of quality of service and speed of handling requests. In the branch, managers were inevitably distracted by other issues, whereas in the HUBs, they work only with their customer portfolio. Each manager generally has around 70 customers and another 15 customers in the pipeline. Within the portfolio, the manager knows their customers well, sometimes better than the customers themselves, understanding their business needs.
I was going to ask: is getting in touch with a personal manager always the customer's initiative, or is it yours as well?
We are always ready to take the initiative. After accumulating much information, a personal manager can offer each customer a consultation or advice on increasing business efficiency. There are many situations. Often, customers have transferred to maib from other banks for servicing. Our products differ significantly in many respects, and here, you can find out about additional benefits and recently launched products and services.
You mentioned about customers coming from other banks. When you refer to the maib benefits, what exactly are we talking about?
We don't make direct comparisons because it's unethical. We mention maib ecosystems and partnerships and the maib edu program, which is aimed at CEOs, business people, financial experts, and accountants. We highlight maib’s agility. You can get a bank guarantee online in 30 minutes. Or, when you realise at customs that you haven't made any of the required payments when 100 MDL can delay a cargo shipment worth hundreds of thousands of MDL, you can make a transfer, and customs will get it simultaneously. We also mention the extensive network of international correspondent banks. Flexibility in choosing a correspondent bank can significantly increase the efficiency of international settlements. We don't make direct comparisons because it's unethical. We mention maib ecosystems and partnerships and the maib edu program, aimed at CEOs, business people, financial experts, and accountants. We highlight maib's agility. You can get a bank guarantee online in 30 minutes. Or, when you realise at customs that you haven't made any of the required payments when 100 MDL can delay a cargo shipment worth hundreds of thousands of MDL, you can make a transfer, and customs will get it simultaneously. We also mention the extensive network of international correspondent banks. Flexibility in choosing a correspondent bank can significantly increase the efficiency of international settlements.
However, to enjoy these benefits, do we need to know them all?
Our employees, our personal managers, help customers. Suffice it to mention our new slogan - You drive. maib. Our task is to provide the customer with the most effective financial management tools and thus contribute to the growth and development of the maib customer's business.
