In this "summer episode" of our podcast, Lukas hosted Simla Unal, SME Head of Marketing&Business Development- BNPP International Retail Banking.

Together they talked about the following news and trends in the SME Banking world:

1. Banks playing a role in running the business of their SME clients:

Temenos and Canadian Western Bank (CWB) have innovated together to develop an Explainable AI-driven (XAI) solution, Temenos Virtual COO

We've already seen many attempts of banks or FIs all over the globe to help SMEs manage their business, but where are the limits of such services What are the boundaries/challenges for banks with further developments of their beyond banking offerings?

2. SMEs in the spotlight of global economy

NASA Invests $51 Million in Innovative Ideas from US Small Businesses.

Following the inspiration of NASA - Can FIs create much bigger business model around SMEs?

What are the areas where SMEs still need the biggest support? Are there still some sub-segments of SMEs that requires special attention or treatment?

In May Episode, Lukas and his guest - Meaghan Johnson look at recent news in SME banking sector:

Below are some of the highlights:

Raise of Insurance products/ value proposition for SMEs:

- Reputational Risk Insurance by Beazley

- Metro Bank launches into insurance market with new SME proposition

- Emirates NBD and MetLife form strategic partnership to provide insurance products and solutions to the bank's extensive wealth, retail and SME customer base across the United Arab Emirates

Disrupting the disruptors

- Payhawk raises $20M to unify corporate cards, payments and expenses

- Pleo debuts "Bills" to digitize SMB invoicing

In April Episode, Lukas and his guest - Sue Douthwaite look at recent news in SME banking sector:

Below are some of the highlights:

- Revolut Business adds a suite of new features for businesses

In the very first episode of 2021, Lukas has invited Slawomir Koziol to talk about recent news from SME industry.

Below are some of the highlights:

- Alliance Bank Malaysia - As a result of introducing BizSmart® Mobile app in 2020 the bank’s online transactions increased by approximately 30-40% and customers were more willing to sign up for online banking to perform their transactions.

- Desjardins Canada – following the COVID-19 lockdown, the bank quickly moved to implement temporary relief measures to make a difference for their SME clients - in areas such as financing, credit cards, group insurance, and commercial vehicle insurance, but as well the non-financial services.

- Danske Bank has laid off 257 employees and concluded voluntary redundancy terms with a further 261 staff as part of a two-year strategic overhaul.

- ABN Amro is to slash its workforce by 15% and sell its head office in an effort to cut costs.

In the December episode, Efma’s SME expert Lukas Dzuroska interviews Esra Kivrak. Esra is a financial services strategy advisor with years of SME banking experience at top financial institutions in the MENA region. The two take a look at the most recent news in the world of SME banking and Esra provides her expert POV on how and why these things are happening.

Below are some of the highlights:

- Deutsche Bank are revamping their operations for business clients by combining multiple offerings for different-sized businesses into a single, focused Biz Banking offering, reflecting a renewed focus on SME banking

- Santander Bank in the USA opened their first working café in Brooklyn, NY, with a suite of services for SME clients

- Ant Group launched an international trade and financial services platform, facilitating global SME business operations

- In the UK, Lloyds Bank rolled out a supply chain platform that will offer supplier financing and receivables for their customers, all accessible from a digital dashboard

In the third episode of SME at a glance: Expert views on the news produced by Efma's SME Banking team, Lukas Dzuroska and Helene Panzarino discussed the latest SME news and had a look at:

This episode looks at the innovative trends across the globe that are shaping the way banks are adopting their client offerings in new and intriguing ways. New ecosystems and uses of data feature prominently among the examples in this episode. Below are some of the highlights:

- Handelsbanken is closing over half their bank branches in Sweden 

- How Natwest UK and Hong Leong bank in Malaysia are introducing new payments services and ecosystems 

- ICICI is using satellite imaging to inform its lending decisions in India 

- Citi takes stake in data management firm Solidatus Technology

In this first episode Lukas Dzuroska and Tomasz Gorski will discuss news that has happened between May and July including:

- American Express acquiring Kabbage

- Aion Bank launching their business banking for SMEs

- Société Générale acquiring Shine

- ING investing over 4 million pounds into Business banking app Countingup

- ING announcing its cooperation with Amazon in offering loans to eligible sellers