Kostas Tovil Interview at Insider.gr and the journalist Nena Malliara

• TBI Bank is defined as a fintech bank, leader in inclusive banking and in the market of Buy now, Pay later, BNPL. Could you please explain what does that mean and what is the ratio between bank and fintech in TBI’s concept. (please include any innovation TBI brings)

TBI Bank is a challenger bank with technology at its core specialized in lending and alternative payment solutions with BNPL and general-purpose loans. We cooperate with more than 13,000 merchant partners and serve the needs of millions of customers in the markets where we operate. Our financial solutions are agnostic to the channel used – be that online, instore or any other hybrid combination.
Would like to clarify that TBI Bank is mainly operating in the B2B and B2C segment, this means that our client base consists of retail partners and consumers. We emphasize a lot on our relationship with retailers and our ability to help them sell more. On top of that our on-boarding process for merchant partners, our plug and play easy integration solutions for e-shops, marketing resources and continuous support of our Business Enablers and contact center makes TBI Bank a partner that they can rely on. TBI Bank cooperates with all industries and merchant verticals starting with fashion stores, home improvement, medical services, secondhand cars and motorcycles just to name a few.
Our customers are also the consumers, the shoppers of our merchants and here as mentioned earlier we are an inclusive financial provider helping people achieve their goals whatever those may be. We emphasize on customer segments that are usually underserved by traditional banks. An underserved customer can be someone that due to young age and lack of previous lending experience is excluded and is not eligible to finance a purchase. This means that TBI Bank in Greece can onboard, assess and finance customers starting with 18 years of age up to the retired ones, fast with tailor made pricing, instantly and transparently. And we can do this during their shopping journey irrespective if they want to buy a new pair of jeans or put braces on their kids. At the same time, we offer merchants the ability to become TBI Partners within a day and start seeing an increase in their sales by offering to their customers alternative payment methods instead of just credit, debit cards and cash.

• Please elaborate on TBI’s history and its profile.

TBI Bank has phygital (hybrid between online and instore solutions) approach in Romania and Bulgaria. Now in Greece a local team of professionals will support our partners and customers with our innovative and digital solutions, like Buy now, Pay later. We also have passportization license in several other European markets like Germany and Lithuania. We are a truly international team with 16 different nationalities working for TBI and we have a great organizational culture where we embrace on a daily basis our values of being passionate, brave and caring. As shared – we are having phygital approach, meaning that through embedded technology we are able to onboard and offer financial services to business and consumers alike and at the same time we have an extensive network of bank branches and merchant partners acting as service points for our customers. All of our products can be managed via our Banking Mobile App together with daily financing and payments solutions.

• What was the rationale behind the decision to expand TBI to Greece, especially now?

No doubt that the market in Greece has a potential to grow. First of all the economy has recently been growing rapidly. This means that the businesses, which are our main customers, would need our services. The merchants are actually our main stakeholders in business, we empower e-commerce, regular stores, even service providers such as dentists etc. to sell more with our BNPL solution. Our analysis showed that although commerce and especially e-commerce has marked a notable increase, the checkout experience and options available to the customers of e-shops and physical ones is confined just to cards and cash. At the same time, the credit card as a purchase financing instrument is declining both in numbers and popularity especially to younger people, and in effect there is a void in the market that TBI Bank wants to service.
Finally, and also a very important point, there has been a rapid digitization by state institutions in the last period and this is helping digital first banks like us to operate smoothly and efficiently offering to the Greek public a much better banking experience.

• What products do you offer to Greek consumers and which is your target group in terms of clients? (please elaborate on specific products and explain more thoroughly than in your press release)

As a product proposition we will start by offering short and longer term Buy now, Pay later payment plans on all industries, be that high velocity and low value on verticals like fashion and cosmetics to higher tickets in industries like home improvement, furniture, electronics, medical services etc. In a couple of months, we will launch our general-purpose loans and then in the beginning of autumn we will introduce our mobile app that will support customers daily banking experience.

•  What are TBI Bank’s financial figures and targets for its presence in the Greek market?

Our unaudited results for the full year of 2021 show that TBI Bank reached 710 million EUR of assets under management, a record 29.7 million EUR net profit and 19.8% return on average equity. These numbers put the bank among the most profitable banks in SEE region, again, and are a real testament of our ability to finance our customers’ needs and keep on investing in technology and solutions that deliver value.

• The competition between fintech financial organizations and traditional banks, has led the latter to promote that the first have not established a loyal relationship with their clients. Also, that they don’t have a competitive business model or a profitable product offering. What is your opinion on this and what challenges do you think fintech companies are facing?

The success of big fintechs is undoubtable, they have attracted tens of millions of customers by offering a better and faster service, experience, pricing than the traditional banks. Also the definition of loyalty is a loose term when it comes to finance, customers have their daily lives and needs, they will with no doubt switch between APPs, make a payment or finance their purchase on the checkout as it fits them without really thinking twice about loyalty. Traditional banks use fintechs as a reference in terms of convenience and customer experience, but the challenge these banks face is their multilayer decision-making process that impacts time to delivery, legacy systems and of course resource allocation.
Regarding profitability, I believe that the big fintechs have invested a lot in the market expansion, technology, and marketing, these are all impacting their bottom line, but as they’re adding new products to their offerings, they will manage to make a turnaround. Of course, there are many smaller fintechs and startups that due to the lack of a meaningful size or business model will eventually fade out.