This is a CTP of initiative: FEBEA/Banca Popolare Etica (Italy)
This critical turning point describes an important event in Banca Popolare Etica's timeline: the cooperative launches in 2012 the new institutional web offering for the first time online banking services. The Website and other communication tools developed by the initiative will be supported by a new social media team aimed to increase BPE´s online reputation. The initiative had a particular focus on demonstrating the coherence of the BPE's banking practices, becoming an “unique example of transparency in the banking sector in Italy”.
The new Website (www.bancaetica.it) aspires to make accessible all cultural and commercial services in a simple way. Besides, the cooperative developed a “digital map” (so called "With my money") where people can discover all the projects and organizations financed by Banca Etica, and see the life stories of people who run the sustainable/social projects funded by BPE. With this Website, the cooperative aimed to maintain the commitment of its savers. The idea was that through it each investor could feel proud when knowing BPE is financing with his/her savings “a cooperative that employs people with disabilities, an organic farm or a factory that produces photovoltaic panels”.
And then people said: “I live in Sicily; let´s see what kind of credits have been given in Sicily." So for me that's a critical moment.
According to the interviewee, this critical turning point enhanced the reputation of the cooperative, being acknowledged and accelerating growth in the number of customers. Besides, she observed a change in people´s financial behaviour, in terms of an increasing awareness of good practices developed by their bank:
Due to the crisis, people began to see banks differently. The first thing people look at when they enter the web is not their account expenses or the services we provide, but what BPE does, what is BPE ... what type of credits we grant. We monitor our web page statistics using Google Analytics and we have observed that people is very interested in our social investments.
With this online strategy, Banca Popolare Etica makes it easier for customers to open an online bank account. Concretely, this met one common demand among costumers that ensured that “though they would like to choose ethical financing, they do not have a banking office close to home”. The new service received the positive feedback by many customers and new clients who requested their own online account. This circumstance had positive and negative implications. For instance, employees were overwhelmed by the increasing workload they had to withstand.
Initially we had 10 requests for online accounts every day, Saturdays and Sundays included ... and that involved a lot of work because 10 accounts per day was too much for our limited staff... and then the demand grew up to 20 accounts per day. In only a year, online accounts involved the same workload than the total of our (physical) bank's offices!
Consequently, The CTP also involved an internal organization of the responsibilities and duties of the employees. New people were hired to manage social media and online communications:
Things have changed because now we have a small group of people that only deals with this and one is a young creative person who has a lot of ideas, a very innovative person.
This critical turning point was co-produced mainly by the directors of the cooperative, headed by the President of the Board of Directors, Ugo Biggeri, and its CEO, Mario Costra. The new Board of Directors, elected in 2010 Shareholders’ Assembly, brought to the cooperative innovative strategies to increase its financial activity as well as a clear strategy for reaching new sectors within the civil economy and individuals. The cooperative had also been involved in the processes of both restructuring and product innovation which lead them to make major investments. The initiative aimed to contribute to the “resilience of social cooperation, which is the answer to face a global crisis that questions not only the economy, but also - and especially - social aspects and the ability to generate well-being for people” (Biggeri, 20111)
Second, the release of the new website and the launch of the online services were objectives established also in the Strategic Communication Plan developed by the Communication Department of Banca Popolare Etica. This department, headed by Andrea Tracazan, had started to design a new communication strategy in 2008 aiming to increase the online reputation of BPE. As a result of this Plan, Banca Popolare Etica launches its new institutional website and creates a social media profile in Twitter. Also, it distributes information on the performance of the bank (through “Banca Note” brochures). Following this strategy of increasing online reputation, the President and some members of the Board, use their personal profile on Twitter as another via to connect to the wider public and thus disseminating Banca Eticas’s activities and results.
Moreover, the respondent remarks the new social media team that Banca Populare Etica included in its structure to manage community media and create online material. Besides, the online banking service required its own staff so the cooperative created a call centre to take customer’s phone calls.
We have now a small group of people who only deal with social media. There is one very creative young person, who comes with new ideas, he is very innovative.
We changed the way of working with customers, because we have also created the call center. Then, when customers call, a specialized group of workers directly take them. And people directly find a person who can solve their problems immediately.
Specific contextual factors have prompted Banca Popolare Etica to reach this CTP. In 2011, Banca Etica is an organization with 38.000 members spread over Italy. In 2012, the bank counted on 80 local shareholder groups involving more than 40,000 people.
Since the 2007-2008 crisis, BPE’s popularity has grown in Italy and, as consequence, financial activity increased in 2011 more than 24% (credit volume) similarly to the previous years. Italian citizens were aware of the differences between mainstream banking practices and ethical banking ones and found in BPE a strongly linked to its social mission cooperative. The bank launches the online banking platform in order to address the increasing demand by citizens who wanted to move into ethical banking but who couldn't because there were no regular offices in their cities. The president of the Board of Directors, Ugo Biggeri, explained the outcomes of the economic crisis in the following:
“Since 2008, banks have experienced a period of great turbulence: some are among those responsible for an enduring crisis triggered by overly speculative finance. As a result, banks have struggled to cope with a loss of investor confidence and growing problems in the real economy. During the same period, Banca Etica has instead experienced a steady increase in confidence from investors and shareholders. Savings and share capital in Banca Etica have grown significantly since 2008. This has allowed us to be one of the few banks that has continued to grant credit to families and social enterprises, with a non-performing loan rate that is equivalent to a quarter of the Italian banking system’s average” (Biggueri, 20142).
[2] http://www.gabv.org/opinions/banca-popolare-etica-president-ugo-biggeri-on-social-impact
Several related events have been briefly mentioned by the respondent. First, she mentions the celebration of the 2009 Shareholders’ assembly in which the members of the new Board of Directors are elected, headed by the new president Ugo Biggueri. The new management team developed the 2012-2014 BPE’s Business Plan, defining the main macro objectives of the organization. The Board also initiated the reorganization of the different structures of the cooperative and endorsed the new communication plan that the Department of Communication aimed to implement in the 2011-2012 period. Through this new strategy, Banca Etica launches the new Website and online banking services which strongly changed the existing relations between the cooperative and its customers:
It was a very important change when we opened these online services, because it also coincides with a very important moment that is the change of the communication policy, right? The bank had developed its future strategy. This event meant a change in our office’s culture ... We lost, in certain terms, the face to face contact with clients. We became more like an ordinary bank.
As a consequence of this CTP, the cooperative decided to invest more resources in managing its online reputation. BPE creates in 2014 a small community media management expert team, which will be focused on social media.
We are still growing up. We have created a community media working group, which initially consisted of 10 people. Now we are five or six people who, manage our social media at all times, even on Saturdays or Sundays. It is a kind of volunteer work. Because we do this at night... We have ideas at night, in the afternoon and when we finish our ordinary work. We have the aim to reach young people. We have a small group of young workers who work with the media team because it is a great opportunity to work together.
A third event also relates to the bank’s strategy to reach young people, young/future banking customers who the bank wants to work with. The interviewee is very concerned about the age average of the BE social basis and she emphasizes that the cooperative should “persuade and capture” younger people to join ethical banking initiatives. Banca Etica has been conducting several “financial education” activities in recent years oriented to scholars, business schools and adults. For example, in 2014 Banca Etica organized more than 180 public meetings in Italy focused on ethical finance issues and sustainable development, involving about 15,000 participants (BPE 20141).
Finally, this CTP also relates to a change on the financial activity that the cooperative used to perform, grounded on its values and mission. The president of the initiative explains this in the following quotation:
“Banca Etica has traditionally focused its financing activity on organisations operating within the third-sector that carry out civil society oriented economic projects and which have the legal form of either cooperative societies, associations or social institutions. In recent years, the bank started working with for-profit organisations that are focused on organic food, green energy and employee buy outs. Our products and services include savings accounts, current accounts, debit and credit cards, affinity cards with organisations like Amnesty International, payment services and online banking" (Biggeri, 20122).
[1] http://www.bancaetica.it/blog/un-anno-educazione-finanziaria
[2] http://www.gabv.org/members/banca-popolare-etica
The critical turning point did not cause any contestation of relevant discussion among the shareholders of the initiative. According to the respondent, most of the members perceived this change in communication and online services as an opportunity for increasing the impact of the cooperative. They considered it as an appropriate strategy to enlarge the initiative in number of associates and customers as well as to approach to a new segment of the population, concretely to young people, more used to work with online banking platforms.
The interviewee remarks here the role of the Head of the Communication Department, who had developed a prior process of discussing and collecting members' and workers’ experience and insights, and has incorporated all this knowledge into the new communication strategy. Besides, the initiative also anticipated internal protests and organized small meetings to explain the plan and how every person could contribute to enhance Banca Etica’s online reputation to make them feel part of the process:
In my view, people took this moment as an opportunity to grow. The head of the Communication Department, Andrea Tracazan, he is an awesome person, who has an special way of communicating, he has been able to unlock the full potential of all the people involved, including people who do not have this social media culture.
However, in the beginning, the interviewee perceived tensions within an specific sector of the cooperative, namely the employees. As it was explained in the previous sections, the new activities and services that the bank started to offer to its customers had negative consequences for the worker’s labour conditions. Employees complained because they felt overwhelmed by the increasing workload. Such problem was solved by recruiting more personnel to be devoted to the online services and call center.
Is true that it was not a simple change because the work was so overwhelming! and employees perceived it as a workload and not as an opportunity. Now, four years later, people see online banking as an opportunity.
The initiative eventually created a volunteer working team of employees from different functional areas who developed the social media strategy and managed the Twitter accounts.
This CTP was overseen by many activists and employees within the bank. It is a result of a strategic plan to modernize the initiative’s communication tools and It was grounded on the knowledge provided by many partners and workers involved in the process. In 2012, the president of Banca Etica, Ugo Biggeri, described this turning point:
"This Website is one more step towards our goal of being first and foremost a project of economic democracy. We made an online project inspired by the wish to make Banca Etica even more accessible. The analysis We carried out before the launch of the new Web had shown that the good reputation of Banca Etica was determined primarily by the positive and spontaneous feedback from partners and customers. There is a large number of people curious to better understand how Banca Etica works. We believed this website would be an effective tool to meet all these demands. We hope that even those who have only heard of us, or still do not know us, choose to join our project in order to build a more fair, sustainable and clean world" (Biggeri, 20121).
The respondent affirms that many partners and directives perceived this event as a turning point in the History of Banca Popolare Etica. They felt, while this CTP occurred, that it would be positive for its external reputation as well as a good opportunity to take a leap forward increasing the number of associates and customers. In particular, she cares about potential young partners:
In my opinion, it represented an opportunity, something positive... Because we really have now a wider service coverage. An online bank is open 24 hours a day and for me this is a positive feature... Because now people, young people, visit our web at night, on Sunday or Saturday…
The leaders of Banca Popolare Etica were also able to anticipate the need to renew the bank's social base, making the ethical baking discourse attractive to young people. The outbreak of the financial crisis and its media coverage enhanced people’s awareness on banking “bad practices”.
“This is a general situation that requires commitment from an increasing number of people and organisations to support Ethical Finance institutions. In order to maintain its growth rates it is fundamental that the public decides to be an active player in the financial change effort (Biggeri, 20122).
The leaders of the bank aimed to take advantage of the positive reputation of Banca Popolare Etica for engaging younger people in sustainable and responsible financial consumption practices.
I expect to grow mostly focusing on younger people, because young people do not usually approach Banca Etica physically, walking into our offices, but through our Website. This is my personal vision and Andrea's as well. We try to reach young people.
[1] (original in Italian) http://www.ilcambiamento.it/articoli/banca_etica_nuovo_sito_conto_in_rete
[2] http://www.gabv.org/opinions/banca-popolare-etica-president-ugo-biggieri-on-ethical-finance
Among the lessons drawn from this critical turning point are the communication skills and social media management competences that committed partners and activists acquired. The CTP provided a starting point in terms of strategic online communication. From 2012 on, the Website becomes the main communication channel between BP, its clients and the general public. The new site was entirely based on a blog platform whose content is updated daily and fed with information from the BPE’s territorial groups. The same contents are also spread through the new Twitter account (@bancaetica), which “increases the possibility of reaching people beyond the physical and time limits”.
Thus, also the bank's e-newsletter benefited from the procurement of an online platform suited to banking needs. In the same line, the cooperative has also developed a digital communication platform to link to the BPE’s territorial initiative groups own sites, as a way for clients to easily contact them and which also showcases all the planned events and news of each territory. The interviewee remarks that the direction (namely the communication department) offers training courses on community management to volunteers and members of the local groups; all seeking to improve their social media skills as well as maintaining a coherent discourse on Banca Etica’s aims, values and activities.
It is fundamental that our partners know a little about what Banca Etica means ... When one of our members talks to anyone about our bank, it is fundamental that they have some knowledge about what to say. On the other hand, all this: Twitter, Facebook, the web, the services that are on the Web, all them can be a different way to approach different public, provided you have the strength to do that.
The respondent also reflects on the reputation of the bank. According to her, the good reputation of any social initiative depends on its strong values and its coherent discourse, which should be known and reproduced by the majority of its associates.
When we initially founded Banca Popolare Etica, we used some strong keywords: transparency, ethical finance etc., that we behave ourselves appropriately, we are transparent, all the loans we grant are socially oriented, etc. We have some rigid rules. We are clear about what our project is and if you do not communicate what your project means clearly on the Website, you are not believable. Because people often hear about you but they do not find you online. For me, this is the greatest learning I drawn from this.
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