More than one million customers, a leading position in the Swiss market for financing solutions and services, and consistent credit risk ratios – these are all factors that attest to the capabilities of our proven credit factory. Even in times of macroeconomic uncertainty, we have turned in a solid performance and demonstrated our resilience.

­Credit factory with a proven track record

“Cembra is not a traditional bank; we specialise in consumer finance”, explains Chief Risk Officer Volker Gloe. With more than one million customers and around 1,000 credit decisions per day, it is a mass-market business – a credit factory, with automated and standardised processes ensuring a proven level of high quality. The success of the credit factory is built on four core processes: systematic selection of customers, prudent review of applications, consistent portfolio management, and debt collection. “Our work is driven by decades of experience and expertise. This is reflected in the Bank’s risk management approach”, says Volker Gloe.

Reliability generates trust

It is our employees who keep the credit factory running successfully. Most of them have been with the company for many years. In-depth knowledge of our customers and their needs, together with a commitment to partner management, ensures that our customers are satisfied and enables us to build long-term relationships. “Our employees have their fingers on the pulse of the market and know exactly what our customers want”, says Peter Schnellmann, Chief Sales and Distribution Officer. “They pass this information on to us so that we can steadily improve our products and processes.”

Digital and personal

“The customer journey is becoming more and more digital, and increasingly without media disruption. The market trend is moving away from conventional financing towards more flexible payment and financing decisions that are embedded directly and seamlessly into the customer journey”, says Peter Schnellmann. To meet this growing need, Cembra must become more digital and develop capabilities for cooperation and for embedding solutions into partners’ processes. “Customer focus and high quality of service and consulting are extremely important to us”, says Schnellmann. “We will develop our online capabilities, but also retain our strong personal approach to customer relations and our branch network.” Digitisation will not only have an impact on customer processes – our employees will also be taken on board as part of our cultural transformation.

Clear positioning for the future

We aim to hold ground in those areas where Cembra is already well positioned, and develop our strengths further. “We have an extensive network and can cover the entire range: from invoice financing, leasing and conventional loans to credit cards. This makes us unique”, says Volker Gloe. We will need to reposition our business on several levels to keep this up going forward. “On the one hand, we will focus on differentiated products that are offered through traditional and new channels”, says Peter Schnellmann. “On the other, we will establish simpler, more intuitive processes, geared towards the changing expectations and needs of our customers.” This increased efficiency and scalability will enable Cembra to penetrate market segments that would not currently be profitable. “As a market leader with unique expertise, Cembra is ideally positioned to tap into current and future market trends”, Peter Schnellmann and Volker Gloe firmly believe.