NOVO BANCO
“ We need a leadership style that relies on clarity of context and objectives , and that focuses leaders on supporting and unleashing the teams ”
JOAO DIAS CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER , NOVO BANCO
Cash versus digital But what does this mean for the future of online banking in Portugal , which is at a different stage in online servicing compared to other countries ?
“ Of course it ’ s changing ,” says Dias . “ With the pandemic , people prefer not to step out of the house these days . But it ' s still very prevalent . If you talk to a Portuguese digital banking expert , they will tell you that their biggest competitor is the ATM network .”
The result is that cold , hard cash has a wider circulation and use within Portugal , another aspect that sets it apart from other nations . So what does the future look like ?
“ The long-term strategy is similar to other European countries in making digital payment methods more accessible ,” says Dias . “ We have a very successful peer-topeer in-store payment acceptance scheme called MB Way and it ' s very widespread . A lot of people use it and it is helping to reduce levels of cash . Because of digital banking , making payments and doing bank transfers has become so much easier , this has also reduced peer-topeer cash transactions . The EU regulations around interchange fees made the usage of cards much more economical for stores and merchants – so that is helping too .”
Dias says that although Portugal offers a unique banking climate , the strategy to transition payments to digital , is the same as it would be for other countries .
“ NOVO BANCO ’ s strategy is to make payments convenient and rewarding for people . We have a large small business and SME franchise and we also are giving them lots of options to accept digital payments ,” he explains .
Technology partnerships The rolling out of new services requires strong partnership support , he points out .
“ As with all companies , we work with a lot of providers . Strands has a personal finance management and business financial management product that can be white labeled and can be used as a plug and play into our apps and websites . So we ’ ve been working with them to develop our Personal Finance Management ( PFM ) and our Business Finance Management ( BFM ) offerings . And they have been quite important for us on that journey .
“ Deloitte is another big partner and has been our overarching business partner in terms of digital transformation . There is also a Portuguese fintech / regtech – called LOQR – that has been very important for us .”