Solidarity Bankers Podcasts: Episode No. 2

Interview with Andréas BRUNNER, Inspection Supervisor, Amundi
Produced by: Mireille de Kerleau, Communications Manager, CACEIS

Launched by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA in 2018, Solidarity Bankers is a skills-based volunteering program open to all Crédit Agricole Group employees, supporting microfinance institutions and impact businesses supported by the Foundation. This is the second episode of the podcast series dedicated to Solidarity Bankers, the skills-based volunteering program run by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA. The first episode featured Carolina Viguet, the Foundation's Director of Communications & Partnerships and co-initiator of this program. Today, we have the pleasure of welcoming Andreas Brunner, Inspection Supervisor at Amundi in Paris. Andreas is a Solidarity Banker. He carried out a field mission for Oxus in Kyrgyzstan in October 2021 while working at CA Assurances.

Some financial facts about Kyrgyzstan. It is a former republic of the USSR, and one of the poorest countries in Central Asia. With over 121,000 tons of its GDP dedicated to agriculture and a heavy reliance on mining, the Kyrgyz economy is poorly diversified and relies largely on remittances from abroad. Although significant progress has been made in recent years in terms of financial inclusion, according to the latest available figures, barely 401,000 tons of the population aged 15 and over have an account with a formal financial institution. Microfinance institutions are trying to fill these gaps by targeting rural populations excluded from the traditional banking sector, particularly institutions like OXUS Kyrgyzstan, which Andreas supported in 2021 as part of a Solidarity Bankers mission.

Andreas, can you tell us about the institution and the objective of your mission? ?

Yes, of course. OXUS Kyrgyzstan is a microfinance institution with approximately 10,000 clients. It operates in various regions of the country through a network of around fifteen branches. It employs 130 staff, with approximately 30 people at its headquarters located in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Regarding the mission, there were two objectives. The first was to establish a marketing plan for 2022 and also a customer loyalty program.

If we go back a little, how did you hear about the mission and what made you want to apply?

It's already starting to date. In 2019, I had the chance to meet a former Solidarity Banker who told me about his own mission and who told me that there would be other missions offered by Grameen. He told me about his experience and I told him that I was also interested. So I contacted the Grameen Foundation which had, at that time, several missions to propose. I looked at the terms of reference, it's a short description of what there was to do. And I immediately said ok, I'm interested, and what's more it's in a Central Asian country that I didn't know at all. So it was a good opportunity to go and help this entity, to immerse myself in the subject of microfinance, and at the same time, discover another country.

Following this, you were selected. How did the preparation for the mission and the actual field mission go?

I had a few interviews to be selected. I wasn't at all sure I'd be selected because it's true that there were other people who also wanted to do this mission. Once selected, I was super happy. I was supposed to leave at the beginning of 2020. You all know what happened after that, so I couldn't leave in March. I didn't leave until the end of 2021, but the preparation, yes... First of all, I didn't know anything about microfinance. I had to do some research, I had to read. There was a lot of information on the internet to understand the challenges of microfinance. Of course, there's financial inclusion support, that's kind of the overall objective, and then you had to understand how it works, how the loans are distributed to people who need them. And then, the mission, you also had to prepare for it, so you had to understand the entity. I asked them to send me a certain number of documents so that I could get to know the entity, its operation, its positioning, its products, its clients, etc. So I analyzed all of that and defined a work plan. I also defined an almost consultancy approach, what my consultancy approach was with this entity. Then I presented that and I did some more research before leaving.

How did your arrival in the country and the meetings you had go? How did the mission on the ground go?

A little anecdote: arriving at 2 a.m. after a twelve-hour flight, with a short stopover in Turkey, we finally arrived quite tired and, the good surprise, normally there was supposed to be a driver so I was a little worried because I didn't see anyone. But it was the general manager himself who came to pick me up at the airport. Already, with that arrival, we started off on a good basis for collaboration for two weeks and I was in good hands.

We started the mission the same day after a little rest at the hotel. The first week went by very, very quickly. There were a number of interviews that were already planned. I met with the various directors, the financial director, the sales director, a person who was in charge of marketing, so I was able to learn about a number of elements. I was able to ask all the questions I needed to establish a structured document on precisely the marketing approach I wanted to bring to this entity. So the field mission is mainly a lot of interviews, it's also a bit of work in the evening to put everything down on paper, and to build a deliverable, several deliverables in fact.

As I said earlier, there were two objectives. The first objective was to build a marketing plan and the second a loyalty approach, a loyalty program. There were two key deliverables. These deliverables had to be built, produced. I built the deliverables in English. At the end of the first week, I gave an initial feedback saying, "Here I am working on this, is this okay with you, are we going in the right direction?" They were very happy with it and it needed to be refined in the second week.

The question we ask ourselves when we hear you is how the exchanges with the people of the institution and the clients went, knowing that the language and culture are very different from ours.

Yes, absolutely! At headquarters, I was lucky enough to have people who spoke English, so it was easier. However, the second week I had a few interviews at the agency. I was also able to meet one or two clients and there, indeed, it was more complicated. Fortunately, there was a translator who accompanied me during these discussions throughout the day, because even to go to lunch, for example, you had to either speak Russian or Kyrgyz. So luckily I had this person with me, because otherwise it's difficult to communicate, and it's also true that the people at headquarters who speak English, even sometimes for them, it was easier for them to answer me in Russian and then the person translates. So, it possibly added a little time to have a good exchange, it was a little longer than in a classic exchange when you master the language, but it was very very interesting.

So you've been around the country a bit, visiting other cities and towns, I imagine. Have you had some time to take a tour of this magnificent country?

Yes, it's true that the main exchanges were in and around the capital. And between the two weeks of work, I was able to take two days on the weekend to discover the country. There's a very large lake called Issyk-Kul, which is almost 200 km long and 60 km wide, so it's almost like a sea.

It's almost as big as Luxembourg!

These two days I went around the lake. So this enormous lake, when you look to the left you see a mountain range, when you look to the right, there is the other mountain range. So it's true that by doing the whole route, a whole little circuit around the lake, I was able to discover this country. I was even able to sleep in a yurt, that too is an unforgettable experience. In addition, I was able to see someone who makes yurts, so they explained to me how it works. There I also had a guide with me. I was able to communicate a little bit in Russian too, because I have some knowledge of Russian. When I was in middle school I learned a little bit so it was also nice to get back into it. As we were saying earlier, it's quite a human experience.

If you wanted to know what I remember from all this, it's above all these experiences, this human relationship, these encounters with different people, not only through the mission, with the teams, but also with the people we were able to meet on the weekend while crossing the country a little. A very warm people.

Even without the language, there is always a way to understand each other, with gestures, smiles, looks I imagine.

It's true, it's true! We were able to do a little local dance one evening in a yurt, in a big yurt in fact, it was the yurt where we had dinner and in fact there were only locals and it was very difficult to make ourselves understood but there was the telephone, there were applications and we put on some music and immediately it built confidence and it also allowed us to communicate through music because we found songs that they knew and...

So, that's a great share! Listening to all this, my last question is, would you go on a mission again? I imagine so... yes!

Absolutely, absolutely, yes. Right away! Maybe not tomorrow because it's in the planning stages a little, but in any case, yes, with great pleasure. Skills sponsorship is about applying the knowledge you have and sharing it with others, and not being paid for it because we work every day, we're paid, it's our job. Being able to share it with others is rewarding, it gives meaning.

Thank you, thank you very much for agreeing to participate in this interview. I look forward to seeing our listeners for the next edition of this podcast series, this time dedicated not to one banker, but to two, who are currently preparing a remote mission for a microfinance institution in Palestine. See you soon.

Listen to the podcast here