There will be stronger competition among banks as well as in the non-financial sector and it will be customers who will benefit from it;

The banking sector faces the challenge of higher regulatory pressure, greater publicity and declining margins;

I welcome any actions that will be really advantageous to the relationship with our customers in the long run.

A long-term career in the financial sphere requires compliance with ethical standards.

Modern technologies, social networks, big online players such as eBay, Amazon, Facebook, etc. pose the greatest challenge to the banking sector. The online world will become more and more important for the banking sector. This is what Levon Hampartzoumian, UniCredit Bulbank’s CEO said while delivering a lecture to students from the Faculty of Economics at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. Only a few days before the university celebrated its anniversary Mr. Hampartzoumian was invited as a guest lecturer at the request of the Faculty’s Business Club.

“Apart from the intense internal competition among banks, the pressure also comes from players in the non-financial sector which demonstrate willingness and some of them even have the capacity to meet part of our customers’ financial needs. For example, only 15 years ago the biggest clients of server companies were banks and the government. A company like J.P. Morgan has about 70 thousand servers for the information it has collected. At the same time, eBay, Facebook and other similar companies order approximately 25 thousand servers per quarter each. The vast amount of information and knowledge, customer profiles, preferences, etc. is an enormous challenge for the banks. It is even quite possible that at some point in time Amazon can have more information about customer preferences than the banks themselves. It is necessary to make just one small step further from having the information about customer preferences and needs at your disposal to supplying a product in order to meet these needs. It would come as no surprise if, once you’ve graduated from university, you started working at a company which is not a bank and yet offers financial services”. That was Mr. Hampartzoumian’s answer to some of the main questions that were addressed during the lecture: “What is it like to be a financial specialist?” and “What are the current challenges to the financial specialists and the financial field?”

According to him, for the time being banks have a serious advantage because they have a better understanding of the credit risk than non-financial players. However, there is a lot of information in the hands of companies like mobile operators and ebay and their improvement is only a question of time. “Competition is healthy. It makes us improve and this is for the benefit of the clients”, he said.

Hampartzoumian’s forecasts suggest that there will be a higher regulatory pressure for the banking sector development as well as greater publicity, declining margins, pressure on the supply of different products.

“As a banker I encourage any actions that will be really advantageous to the relationship with our customers in the long run. Moreover, all the mystery surrounding professional jargon and small font size should definitely be unravelled. I totally agree with this. We are looking for and will continue looking for long-term solutions”, explained Levon Hampartzoumian.

The banking sector also faces the variety today’s generation is seeking. “UniCredit has previously asked the University of Bologna to make a profile of the young people between 20 and 30 years of age. The results which can possibly apply to Bulgaria too show that the young generation wants to have everything now, at this very moment, and that there is certain arrogance in its behavior. Young people belonging to this generation will change seven different job positions and three relatively stable partners before retirement. Could you tell me, please, how you can grant a loan to somebody with such a diverse background? Each generation has its peculiarities”, he said.

Nevertheless, he thinks that despite the changing technologies and the way financial services are offered, there is one important thing that does not change. “Ethics play a crucial role when you work as a banker or a financial specialist. We deal with large amounts of both personal and corporate confidential information which in the corporate world can influence the company’s success or failure so that the compliance with high ethical standards is of cardinal importance. The main commodity that a bank offers is trust. Whatever you do, do it in such a way that people can come back to you and confide in you. This is vitally important if you want to have a sustainable position in this sector for a long time.”

More information for media:

UniCredit Bulbank, Identity & Communications Department

Viktoria Blajeva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Ekaterina Ancheva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 963, flbufsjob/bodifwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Magdalena Ivanova, Phone: + 359 2 9232 528, nbhebmfob/jwbopwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch