Since its establishment in 2008, BNF Bank (formerly Banif) has sought to become a key player in the local banking sector, taking on the traditional big retail players by offering customers an enhanced banking experience.

With the arrival of new majority stakeholders in October 2016, BNF Bank implemented a strategy which encompassed significant business growth, enhancing of its brand identity, improving its product range, and reinforcing governance structures, underpinned by strong stakeholder support in the form of significant capital investment.

“The key to BNF’s success in recent years is placing the customer at the centre of everything we do,” explains Michael Collis, CEO and managing director of the bank. “To constantly challenge ourselves to ensure we are serving and providing real value and support to the communities in which we operate.”

The bank’s customer centric approach, both for the personal and corporate sectors, focuses on providing a suite of products which address clients’ needs throughout their life’s journey.

“We believe that every relationship begins with a conversation. By understanding our customers’ needs we can seek to strengthen our products, our efficiency, and the experience of banking with BNF,” says Mr Collis.

He describes how the performance of the bank’s retail and corporate segments has been steadily improving. This, coupled with a localised and community-based approach and continuous investment in their staff and infrastructure, confirms the bank’s strategy to become the bank of choice in Malta.

Mr Collis believes that being adaptive to change is a crucial attribute with the constant changes in technology, regulation, and consumer behaviour, although he emphasises that traditional business traits are still important.

“As part of our transition to become a digitally oriented bank,” he says, “we’ve instigated a substantial technology investment programme to ensure our customers’ needs are met in this respect.”

Turning to the recent achievement of the Bank of the Year Malta 2020 Award, Mr Collis says that the development of digital and electronic banking services together with the bank’s role and efforts during a year characterised by market uncertainty and unique challenges were key ingredients of the accolade.

The coveted award was presented to BNF by the prestigious global publication The Banker, published by the Financial Times, and “is yet another testimony of how we’ve managed to grow our business sustainably, in a competitive market”.

Mr Collis concludes by looking to the future. “With significant expansion plans both locally and internationally, we will continue to challenge the status quo, stay alert to new opportunities, and continuously seek to innovate to stay ahead of the pack.”