Banka Kombetare Tregtare - Executive of the Year - Banking

Company: Banka Kombetare Tregtare Kosove ShA
Company Description: BKT has started its operations in Kosovo in 2008, ranking 4th place in Kosovo banking sector in terms of total assets. BKT has 25 branches in 16 cities and 389 employees across Kosovo. With transformation undergone in last 3 years, BKT has been fastest growing bank in last 3 consecutive years when this success was confirmed with numerous awards especially during pandemic year.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Banking

Nomination Title: Mr. Suat Bakkal

Mr. Suat Bakkal joined BKT Kosova in 2018 in the position of CEO and Board Member, bringing along a substantial professional experience from Turkey. His previous experience in Branch Management, Corporate & Investment Banking, and Asset Management, made it possible for him to install a new mindset of banking and a new path towards shaping the corporate culture and values of BKT Kosova.

Since the very beginning, Mr. Bakkal’s priorities were fixed on the objectives towards changing the conventional way of banking, by conceptualizing, building and implementing strategies that were aimed at growth and development of the institution. The change in mindset of BKT workforce was one of the main pillars of change, which was directed exclusively by Mr. Bakkal, as it was regarded to be the main issue to be addressed before any operational change takes form. The bank has unceasingly invested in training of the bank’s workforce who were expected to exceed the expectations of customers from the bank, which was successfully achieved. This approach began to give fruitful results, as the personnel of the bank were motivated through the means of learning new things, which resulted in outperformance in the industry. Training related to the cutting-edge technologies in banking, to the modern techniques of customer relationship management and most importantly, trainings related to the financial instruments, capital markets, private banking and wealth management played a crucial role to place BKT’s employees in the spotlight of the Kosovo’s bankers’ community.

The year 2019 was marked with a lot of fundamental changes, starting from the adaptation of the main corporate governance principles and the bank’s organization structure, to the business strategy of the bank. Under the motivating direction of Mr. Bakkal, 2019 was marked with high performance of BKT Kosova in all indicators. The inertia of innovation, automation, energy and agility, continued for BKT Kosova during 2019, as a result of the main changes of 2018 which started to flourish. A lot of investments and process improvements took place during 2019, mainly directed to implementing the strategic plans of further digitization of the Bank, enhancing customer experience, maximizing capabilities and transforming the way the bank operates. Therefore, the bank has continuously invested during 2019 and the same elevated trend continued during 2020, despite the hardships and challenges brought by the pandemic. Despite pandemic 2020 was a year filled with launching new products and services, which were non-existent in the market, such as: Digital Account, Digital Loan, Smart Invest, high tech solutions for customer services, cutting edge technology in electronic banking and automated distant service, and so on.

The outcome of the kick-off year of 2018 for the digitization of the bank, not only resulted in dramatic increase in the customer satisfaction but also in financial figures, as well. Business volumes, transaction numbers, income and service quality, they all marked significant increase throughout the consecutive years of 2019 and 2020. The bank has achieved highest growth rates in customer deposits, loans and total asset in last 3 years. Details of financial achievements are provided in attachments. It was precisely this kind of thoughtful, deliberated leadership, a blend of systematic focus, employee- and customer-centric consistent approach applied by Mr. Bakkal, that led undoubtedly to quantitative growth of the institution as well.

The impact Mr. Bakkal has had on the bank, underlines all of the areas of operations and all of the points of interests coming from the bank’s stakeholders. The new mindset for banking, the new services and products implemented and the brand-new set of responsibilities and governance practices, brought satisfaction for the end users of the banking services, for the employees of the institution and good financial results for the shareholders. The entire changes conceptualized by Mr. Bakkal, served the sole objective of the business strategy, which was to reach a high degree in digitalization and automation of services outpacing competitors and providing them with an example to follow.

Summary:

-The highest growth rates in deposits, loan and total assets during last years in banking sector,
-The highest ROE among peers in 2020 despite pandemic,
-First bank to offer digital account opening and digital loan in the market,
-First localtrading platform allowing clients to invest in international markets in banking sector, which is embedded in e-banking and mobile banking,
-Bank started offering green loans such asenergy efficiency and renewable energy,
-Bank opened a new sales channel of Merchant loan which is a trademark in country,
-Advance deposit product which pays interest right away, rather than waiting for maturity; clients' top preferenceduring pandemic,
-First private banking department with focus on wealth management and capital markets through product diversification,
-Bank transformed its organization structure, website, e-banking and mobile app. Besides bank changed all ATM and POS fleet with newest technology.