Discover how Fransabank France is evolving its operations to address rapid technological change, rising customer expectations, and increasing regulatory demands. In this interview, key insights are shared on how the bank is embracing a forward-looking strategy and partnering with SBS to modernize its systems and processes. With a strong focus on agility, efficiency, and innovation, Fransabank France aims to streamline operations, accelerate digital transformation, and deliver enhanced customer experiences. This collaboration highlights a shared commitment to building scalable, future-ready solutions while ensuring reliability, compliance, and performance.
Transcription
"So welcome to the Sales Conference 2026.
Here we are with Firas Azzi, deputy CEO of Franzabank.
Can you please introduce yourself briefly?
— Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm the deputy CEO of Fransabank France. It's a retail bank based in Paris and held by a Lebanese group Fransabank SAL and the French BPCE Group which is a French bank. So we deal with clients based in mainly in Middle East and North Africa, West Africa also. It's mainly corporate clients. So we do credits, corporate credits for these clients, equipment credits, treasury credits, and we do some real estate loans also for these clients. And we do some trade finance also for clients which have commercial business in the area. So this is mainly our activity in France. So we only work with non-resident clients. We do not serve resident clients in France. All our clients are based abroad. And I'm in charge of finance, IT, banking operations, trade finance and relations with customers and banks.
— Today we're going to talk about partnership. So can you tell me what does a successful partnership mean to you?
— Yeah, successful partnership for me is a collaborative synergy between an editor and the client. So it's very important to to make things simple. So when you have a collaborative synergy it mean that you have technical skills that the editor put at the disposal of the client and then the most complex subjects are complicated could be simplified and we can transform them to impactful events.
— Based on your experience working with our teams how effectively do we understand your industry's need and challenges?
— I think that SBS is doing well with us today because they understand the need of the of the bank. They they can bring useful insights, they can flag risks very very early. They can ask the right questions and they support our business goals, not just the technology. That's why we see this as a real partnership.
— From your perspective, what did we do that helped establish trust in our partnership?
— Well, what what did you do to establish trust in that we are in this relationship since we began the project with SBS is understanding more and more the needs of the clients that's why the trust we have built is is growing during the years and through these projects.
— What additional support or capabilities would strengthen our partnership and help you achieve your goals?
— I think we we have to continue in this we have to continue in this way because we have already work together on these different partnerships. We have to continue. We have main topics to deal with. We have digital topics to deal with. We have regulatory topics to deal with and we have AI topics to deal with. So it's very important that SBS continue what we are doing today to help us to deal with all this issue. We already started the job and we have to continue on this way.
— I'm curious how do you expect a partner to challenge you?
— By asking the right questions, by being critical because a partner could should be critical, should ask the right questions and should alert if there's any risks or something like but the decisions will be the bank's one the partner won't be intrusive. The approach should be more cooperative, not intrusive. So I'm waiting for the right questionsto help us perform better.
— So what would be the line between intrusive and proactive?
— Being proactive means proposing solutions. That's what we expect from SBS. Being intrusive means making a decision for the client. With SBS, we have always worked proactively, never in an intrusive way. this is the approahc we value and will continue.
— If you could choose one word that best reflects how SBS could better support you next year, what would it be?
— I would say anticipation because anticipation is very important. We have to anticipate many things on the technological side concerning the core banking and we are working here on the technologies pure technology side. We have to anticipate all the regulatory side. So all the issues concerning the regulatory reportings concerning compliance, concerning accounting, concerning DORA, concerning PSD3 and issues like that and we have to deal also with anticipation on the level of the core and the business lines. So this is very important to anticipate what the bank needs on this level also. So they have three levels of reflection here.
— Thank you so much for being with us and sharing your time here at the 2026 Sales Conference.
— Thank you for having me."
Here we are with Firas Azzi, deputy CEO of Franzabank.
Can you please introduce yourself briefly?
— Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm the deputy CEO of Fransabank France. It's a retail bank based in Paris and held by a Lebanese group Fransabank SAL and the French BPCE Group which is a French bank. So we deal with clients based in mainly in Middle East and North Africa, West Africa also. It's mainly corporate clients. So we do credits, corporate credits for these clients, equipment credits, treasury credits, and we do some real estate loans also for these clients. And we do some trade finance also for clients which have commercial business in the area. So this is mainly our activity in France. So we only work with non-resident clients. We do not serve resident clients in France. All our clients are based abroad. And I'm in charge of finance, IT, banking operations, trade finance and relations with customers and banks.
— Today we're going to talk about partnership. So can you tell me what does a successful partnership mean to you?
— Yeah, successful partnership for me is a collaborative synergy between an editor and the client. So it's very important to to make things simple. So when you have a collaborative synergy it mean that you have technical skills that the editor put at the disposal of the client and then the most complex subjects are complicated could be simplified and we can transform them to impactful events.
— Based on your experience working with our teams how effectively do we understand your industry's need and challenges?
— I think that SBS is doing well with us today because they understand the need of the of the bank. They they can bring useful insights, they can flag risks very very early. They can ask the right questions and they support our business goals, not just the technology. That's why we see this as a real partnership.
— From your perspective, what did we do that helped establish trust in our partnership?
— Well, what what did you do to establish trust in that we are in this relationship since we began the project with SBS is understanding more and more the needs of the clients that's why the trust we have built is is growing during the years and through these projects.
— What additional support or capabilities would strengthen our partnership and help you achieve your goals?
— I think we we have to continue in this we have to continue in this way because we have already work together on these different partnerships. We have to continue. We have main topics to deal with. We have digital topics to deal with. We have regulatory topics to deal with and we have AI topics to deal with. So it's very important that SBS continue what we are doing today to help us to deal with all this issue. We already started the job and we have to continue on this way.
— I'm curious how do you expect a partner to challenge you?
— By asking the right questions, by being critical because a partner could should be critical, should ask the right questions and should alert if there's any risks or something like but the decisions will be the bank's one the partner won't be intrusive. The approach should be more cooperative, not intrusive. So I'm waiting for the right questionsto help us perform better.
— So what would be the line between intrusive and proactive?
— Being proactive means proposing solutions. That's what we expect from SBS. Being intrusive means making a decision for the client. With SBS, we have always worked proactively, never in an intrusive way. this is the approahc we value and will continue.
— If you could choose one word that best reflects how SBS could better support you next year, what would it be?
— I would say anticipation because anticipation is very important. We have to anticipate many things on the technological side concerning the core banking and we are working here on the technologies pure technology side. We have to anticipate all the regulatory side. So all the issues concerning the regulatory reportings concerning compliance, concerning accounting, concerning DORA, concerning PSD3 and issues like that and we have to deal also with anticipation on the level of the core and the business lines. So this is very important to anticipate what the bank needs on this level also. So they have three levels of reflection here.
— Thank you so much for being with us and sharing your time here at the 2026 Sales Conference.
— Thank you for having me."