SME Bank of the Year 2024 nominee: Millennium bcp

How would you describe your bank’s role in the SMEs business journey considering their importance in the economy?

Millennium BCP is the main bank for SMEs in Portugal. With a market share of 18% in corporate credit and 20% in corporate deposits in Portugal, Millennium BCP leads the relationship with Customers in key banking products with SMEs.

This relationship is built from the beginning. Any company created in Portugal is contacted by Millennium BCP in the following day. In this first approach, the company has at its disposal a completely digital account opening process, with the business and accounting software with integrated bank account, iziBizi, being offered.

With the Millennium BCP offer, the Company has a partner at its side for all moments of its activity and in an integrated manner. It begins at the moment the company is set up, continues with the daily monitoring of its activity with business software and is complemented with the offer of specific products for each moment of the company, whether in the digital or the face-to-face environment:

• In the company's relationship with its customers – offering digital or physical payment methods, suitable for the companies' business;
• When managing treasury – offering savings products or short-term financing solutions (factoring and confirming);
• At the time of investment – leasing solutions, advance payments of European investment funds or long-term financing;
• At the time of internationalization – with a dedicated team of experts in international markets and Trade Finance products;
• When it comes to protecting the business – with a wide range of insurance, in the areas of health, work accidents, equipment, real estate, cyber risks or credit.

Briefly describe, what are your top 3 projects/achievements delivered by your bank in the last 18 months for SME customers?

1. iziBizi 

We’ve heard Small Companies and Entrepreneurs expressing frustration with the time lost in administrative management of their business, essentially by the challenges in anticipating decisions due to a lack of integration between business sales, invoices and suppliers with bank information from accounts, payments and documents. As a top Business Bank in Portugal, Millennium BCP addressed iziBizi to tackle this issues and more!
Starting from a 100% digital and in cloud onboarding, Millennium bcp customers can use iziBizi – the first Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) connecting an accountant software and a bank account – to run their business focused on what is important. With iziBizi Entrepreneurs don´t have to be worried by the 3 top of mind challenges: with this solution, they can manage costs by knowing the categories between paying suppliers, employees and taxes from the software - and not from bank. Entrepreneurs can “relax” with automatic invoicing for clients issuing from iziBizi as every invoice has a payment way embedded. And lastly, the unique 30 days cashflow forecast that will allow the entrepreneur, for the first time, to take decisions knowing information from business (invoices and supplier payments) and bank accounts, recurring expenses, loans, commissions, and so on.

2. M2030 – the unique platform for European Funds

Millennium bcp is a strategic partner for companies in supporting and implementing their investment projects under European Funds, always seeking the best solutions to serve the Clients. With this goal in mind, we have developed a fully digital tool that brings together the client, their consultant, and the bank in one place to collectively expedite the reimbursement of European Funds.
In this digital solution, the client allows their consultant to view their account or accounts held at Millennium BCP or other banks. After this simple step, both parties can map out banking transactions and attach supporting documents related to different items in their investment plan. For all mapped transactions, the bank provides banking justifications so that reimbursement for the investment can be promptly requested. All these actions are available in the Digital Archive for consultation whenever and wherever needed.

3. 100% digital account opening

At Millennium BCP, companies and self-employed individuals (sole traders, freelancers, independent professionals) can now open a current account for their business 100% digitally – if they comply with the standard access criteria. 

This solution, that covers more than 40% of all the business current accounts opened by Millennium BCP, allows us to establish relationship with new customers, with an unique and differentiated digital experience where the Client can open the current account and also apply for a transaction bundle and bank cards for his business. 

The traditional current account opening process has been deeply simplified with this digital solution where there’s no need to upload documents and very few data entry is required. Company registration details are automatically collected from official authorities websites with online access code provided by the Client and, regarding the individuals, we also provide the electronic identification and personal details collection from the Company Director through “Chave Móvel Digital - CMD”, an electronic tool for e-identification and personal details feeder provided by the Portuguese Authorities. CMD is also used by the Company Director to e-sign all the paperwork at the end of the Journey.

For more information, visit:

iziBizi: https://izibizi.pt/

M2030 - https://ind.millenniumbcp.pt/pt/Documents/solucoes-empresas/m2030/plataforma-colaborativa-m2030.html

100% digital account opening https://ind.millenniumbcp.pt/pt/Documents/empresas/abrir-conta-empresarial/abertura-conta-empresas.html