Jarosław Dąbrowski is the president of the new bank after the merger. The bank’s Board is composed of all former members of the Boards of DnB NORD Polska and BISE: Joanna Wardzińska, Artur Tomaszewski, Zbigniew Karwowski, Grzegorz Kuliszewski and Cord Meyer.

The big are more powerful, says Jarosław Dąbrowski, President of DnB NORD Bank Polska

Q: How did this merger change the bank’s position in individual segments of the market?
A: Our strategic objective is to become one of the 15 largest Polish banks. Why 15? For a bank like ours – a specialist bank with three lines of business after the merger: corporate banking, banking for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and banking for retail clients - scale is one of the things that count, apart from penetrating into niches and offering specialist products or value added services. We want to remain a specialist and dynamic bank, expanding faster than the market. But in order to provide high quality and high security to clients and to meet all market standards, we have to achieve an adequate scale of operations. And scale means size: this is unavoidable.
Q: The big are more powerful?
A: So they say now, although there are others who say that “small is beautiful.” We want to combine features reflected in the two slogans: we have to be “big” but at the same time we do not want to lose the advantages of the “small”: speed, flexibility and smartness.
To sum up, before the merger each of the two banks ranked between 20th and 30th place in Poland. After the merger the newly established bank moved automatically to the 20th place. And if we manage to exploit our new potential we will move again several places up the ranking. DnB NORD Bank Polska is stronger, more competent, has more products, more clients and three lines of business. This is a very successful combination: attractive to clients, employers and owners.
Q: In which segment of the market your position is the strongest?
A: Three and a half years ago we started activity with 30 employers, 60 clients, one branch and a balance-sheet total of PLN600 million. At that time, our goal was to become a specialist bank and one of the top 10 corporate banks in Poland. And we now are one of the best, if not the largest, banks. This is evident: we are present on the investment financing, bank consortium, forex and currency markets and we take part in large infrastructure projects. We are one of the leading players – not one of the top three or five because we are unable to compete with the largest banks but still we certainly are an important corporate bank in Poland. This is reflected in the number of our clients – more than 600. We have six local branches – corporate banking centres – and provide all services in this segment. We also have quite a strong position in SME banking, the segment which was the most important one for BISE. We also rank high in niche segments like services for housing communities (second most important bank in Poland), housing associations (one of the several most important banks), non-governmental organisations (market leader), and communes and municipalities (one of the top 10 banks).
By combining these two specialisations - corporate banking and SME banking – we rank very high in these two key segments. The third segment, retail banking, is a challenge to us for the future. We already have the foundations of such banking because BISE used to provide services to retail clients. We now have around 50,000 retail clients, including those served by the brokerage office, but our target figure is 500,000.
Q: The media have already heard of your “3 x 15” motto. Could your explain what it means?
A: This month we have announced a new three-year strategy for the bank after the merger. Under the strategy, we will be expanding the three lines of business I have already talked about and pursuing specific financial goals. Why “3 x 15”? Firstly, we want to become one of the 15 most important banks in Poland within three or five years. Secondly, we want to increase our return on assets to 15% within the same period of time. Thirdly, we want our net profit to reach EUR15 million in three years.
Q: What is your message to existing and prospective clients of the bank?
A: My message to the existing clients is: “You now have a stronger, more modern and more dynamic bank, which will be able to meet your needs event better now when it offers an even greater number of modern products. Your interests have gained strong support in the form of stronger owners determined to operate in Poland: DnB NORD, the largest bank in Norway, and NORD/LB, the 10th largest bank in Germany.”
And my message to our prospective clients? It is as follows: “Three and a half years ago DnB NORD had only 60 clients, now we provide services to more than 600 corporations – no one has ever managed achieve such a fast rate of growth in this most demanding sector of corporate clients. This shows how strong, determined, consistent and competent are the bank’s management board, managerial staff and employees. We will transfer this development model to SME banking and retail banking. Our Norwegian owner will share with us the most modern banking solutions for retail clients: mobile services via mobile phones, Internet services and a whole range of products – from traditional ones to asset management and insurance. Some of them will be quite new on the Polish market. We are convinced that this combination of Polish creativity with Scandinavian technology and business ethics will result in our joint success.