It is often said the traditional banking evolves in a new direction. How do you respond to changing expectations of the market?

Marcin Werner: Traditional banking will long remain needed. Let’s just take into account various age and expectations of clients, to name a few reasons. However banking does change and aims to maximalise the degree of possible digitalization and automation. Of course the role of banks will always be very important, but its character will change. Banks of the future will remain financial institutions, at the same time they will become dynamic technological and software companies. Opened, due to API, to the external environment such as e.g. fintech they shall provide financial services often using artificial intelligence and big data solutions in the process. As a software company and a system integrator we help banks in undergoing this transformation. At the same time we don’t limit ourselves to the said banks only. We also cooperate with other institutions of the financial and insurance sectors. On top of that within the framework of our R&D we work on our original IT solutions.

What do you work on now and what are your plans for the 2018?

Marcin Werner: Our systems serve the purpose of i.a. fulfilling the European requirements and are constantly being expanded. Right now we are finalising a few major projects concerning MiFID2 and MiFIR regulations. We’re working on a new module of our flagship “Cesarz” system which supports the process of reporting transactions to the, so called, ARM (Approved Reporting Mechanism). We also introduced another novelty into the system by adding a module of post-transactional reporting to APA (Approved Publication Arrangement) that needs to be ensured very shortly after a transaction is entered. A major competitive advantage of our offer comes from its comprehensiveness. We cover not only the reporting itself, but also enrichment of the content by the data from external sources: ESMA and ANNA-DSB. Each of those modules can be implemented into an already operating system, but it also constitutes a separate product in our offer. We pay a lot of attention to the system supporting transaction clearing in the CCP (Central Clearing Party), such as e.g. the Polish KDPW_CCP. In this area we are now finalizing, with one of the polish banks, a project innovative even in the European scale. Our roadmap for the upcoming year contains another module of the Ceasrz system supporting STFR (Securities Financing Transactions Regulations reporting). Prior to that we intend to add reporting required by the Best Execution and SI (Systematic Internalizer). I realise those names might not tell much to an average reader, but they are very well known in the world of banking, especially in the treasury departments. Our offer concerning regulatory systems contains also ones supporting banks in implementation of communications with the systems of National Audit Office, such as Express Elixir, Ognivo e-Zajęcia, or most recently implemented CMO (“Centralny Mechanizm Oceny”). We are also working on adjustment of our systems to ensure they fulfill new RODO-related requirements.

Is this the full scope of your operations?

Marcin Werner: We don’t want to fall behind on any part of the IT market. Constant evolution of our industry means that focusing only on more traditional areas of operations may cause one to overlook new, often fascinating possibilities of development. We are, for instance, very much interested in the Blockchain technology, especially in the area of the, so called, Smart Contracts and we are already developing certain solutions within our R&D. One of the most important challenges for us now is the world mobile systems and applications. Traditionally for Risco Software our first step here was to educate our specialists. Thanks to this approach we can offer, to our current and prospective clients, a full package of mobile solutions, beginning with a business analysis, and ending with software that may operate on any of the major mobile platforms such as e.g. Android and IOS. We don’t like waiting with our arms folded, so we started with developing solutions useful to our own Company. It’s well-known how important it is to effectively plan various leaves for the whole team, and now I can conveniently oversee this process thanks to an intuitive and aesthetic app on my phone.