‘Our strategy is mainly to follow our customer base’

BNU Macau is marking its 113th anniversary with an exhibition reflecting upon its past, present and future. “A New Century with You” inaugurates today at the Official Residence of the Portuguese Consul-General, and will remain on display until July 31.
In an interview with the Times, BNU’s CEO, Pedro Cardoso, spoke of the bank’s role in Macau, asserting that BNU is the most competitive bank in terms of online transactions. The financial institution recently applied to open a branch on Hengqin Island and intends to follow its customer base doing business in China rather than looking for new clients. The bank is also looking to further its role in the cooperation between China and the Portuguese- speaking countries.

Macau Daily Times – BNU Macau is organizing an exhibition titled “A New Century with You.” What will this exhibition entail?
Pedro Cardoso – The exhibition is a way to celebrate our 113th anniversary in Macau. Our bank was established here in 1902. Although it has a lot of insightful information about our past, which we are very proud of, this exhibition will reflect more upon the present and future of the bank in Macau. And that’s why we called it “A New Century with You.” The exhibition has been divided into four sections. The first is dedicated to BNU as a note-issuing bank. Soon we will have 23 notes, the majority issued in Macau. We will also have free coins issued by BNU, the first since 1952. In the second part we present BNU as a commercial bank, and display very old objects, like typewriters, calculators, and check stamps. The third part will be focusing on our corporate social responsibility activities. BNU has been supporting several causes other than banking, namely education, cultural and sports activities, as well as charitable organizations. The fourth part will focus on Macau as a platform for cooperation between China and the Portuguese-­speaking countries. BNU has a unique position in this area; it is part of the CGD [Caixa Geral de Depósitos] banking group, which has a presence in seven Portuguese-speaking countries.

MDT – How does BNU see its role as a note-issuing bank in Macau?
PC – It’s above all a big responsibility. We are one of the two note-issuing banks in Macau. We have held this role for many years now and above all we feel that this mission has been successfully accomplished. There aren’t a lot of issues in Macau about our role as a note-issuing bank and we believe we have been fulfilling this mission with a high level of efficiency and effectiveness as well.

MDT – How has BNU’s client base evolved over recent years?
PC – BNU’s number of customers just surpassed 210,000 here in Macau. The large majority are local citizens. Only a relatively small percentage of our customers are from western countries. Customers that have selected Portuguese as their main language of communication with BNU account for just four percent of our total customers. Almost all of the remaining customers have chosen Chinese, although some selected English. With the development of Macau’s gaming industry we have also significantly increased the number of our expat customers. We have a very close relationship with the tourism and gaming sectors in Macau. A large number of gaming and hospitality companies’ staff are our customers, and this includes not only local citizens but some expatriate customers too.

MDT – In what way has the bank had to change its services and products to serve that expanded customer base?
PC – BNU has been deepening its marketing approach through segmentation. Although Macau is not a big city, we have been segmenting the market because we believe that not all of our customers want the same thing. They are different. So we have divided the market into five big groups of customers: retail customers; private banking for a more restricted number of clients; then in terms of corporate customers we have allocated three groups. The first is SMEs business, which has been the main driver of BNU’s growth in the last few years. The second includes larger companies in Macau like utility and construction companies. The third group is related to the gaming and hospitality industry. Then we can develop products and services specifically for these different segments.

MDT – Has there been an increase in the number of bank transfers, for instance to Portugal, given that the euro is now worth less?
PC – No. What we have noticed in terms of bank transfers is a very big increase in local bank transfers. This is because our bank exempts local transfers [from fees] if they are performed via our online banking system. So we are the most competitive bank in Macau in terms of local transfers done through the Internet. So in that area we have noticed a tremendous increase. Compared to the period prior to that exemption, I would say that bank transfers have almost doubled.

MDT – Regarding the relationship with CGD — Fidelidade, the Portuguese state-owned banking insurance company, has been acquired by Fuson, a Shanghai-based conglomerate. Are there any similar acquisitions planned?
PC – Fidelidade has been our insurance partner for many years and even after that sale it continues to be our only insurance partner. We value this partnership. We have a lot of projects together with Fidelidade to develop our banking insurance business here in Macau. It’s a well-known fact that Portugal has been one of the most important destinations for Chinese investment. And it’s known that in some [business] operations in Portugal, some of the main interested parties are Chinese companies. So this seems to be a trend that will continue in the future.

MDT – What are the bank’s current plans to expand into China?
PC – BNU has just applied to banking authorities to establish a branch in Hengqin Island. We expect to be operational by the second half of 2016. Our main strategy is to follow our customer base. A significant number of our customers have investments in mainland China, and in particular in Guangdong province. We believe that the development of Hengqin will bring more investments from Macau residents into mainland China. So our strategy is mainly to follow our customer base, rather than to look for new customers in China.

MDT – What role has BNU been playing in Macau’s position as a platform between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries?
PC – BNU already plays a very active role in that sense. Some years ago we established an international desk at BNU to further develop relations with our banking partners in those countries. And information is the key to success, so we have a specialized team to obtain information and investigate new investment opportunities for those countries in China or vice-versa. We have been referring good business opportunities to our banking partners in those countries and in China. We frequently materialize important transactions in this way.

MDT – Do you foresee more business transactions as Macau’s role as a platform further develops?
PC – With the establishment of China’s ‘one belt one road’ policy we have seen more and more cooperation between China and the Portuguese-­speaking countries, not only in Portugal but also in African countries, for instance. So we are feeling quite positive in terms of business potential in that area.

MDT – BNU has a strong partnership with MasterCard. Are there any other similar partnerships in the pipeline?
PC – We work with the main credit card associations, and we expect that very soon we will be launching a new product with one of them. It will be an innovative product. We will disclose further details on this matter before the end of this year.