The investment projects run by mBank in 2018 were aimed primarily to support technological development and, in consequence, further organic growth of the bank. We put the greatest focus on solutions enhancing customer satisfaction and experience. With PLN 363.5 million spent in 2018 (vs. PLN 393.9 million in 2017) the Group’s investment spending was lower than in the year before.
As in previous years, the biggest portion of mBank’s investment spending was allocated to IT (PLN 258.8 million). The mobile application was enriched with new features and products as well as adjusted to new regulatory requirements, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and split payment regulations. More information about the new features of mBank’s mobile application can be found in Inncovativeness is who we are. At the same time, we started to implement iterative changes to our online banking to meet the needs and expectations of our clients. We also launched a range of new features making the platform even more useful from the point of view of our clients – for more details see Innovativeness is who we are.
Our investment projects were focused on enhancing efficiency and cost optimisation. We improved the corporate banking credit procedure for K3 clients (SMEs) using an automated scoring mechanism, standardized documents and a simplified collateral catalogue. Another project aimed at increasing efficiency in the corporate banking area involved integration of the key processes in central units.
Furthermore, we carried out a number of projects adjusting the bank’s processes and systems to new regulations, such as MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), PSD2 (Payment Services Directive), STIR (clearing house ICT system) and split payment (both related to the Polish tax system), GDPR and IFRS 9 (International Financial Reporting Standard 9).
With PLN 61.2 million, the real property area ranked second in terms of investment spending.
In 2018, we continued the “One Network” project by opening six light branches and four advisory centres. Additionally we carried out development of selected branches in our network. As a result four new light branches were opened.