Hasibe Genova, AMFS:

Rasko Peric:
Perhaps you will introduce yourself: Who are you and what is your business?

Hasibe Genova, AMFS:
Advance Mobile Factoring Solutions (AMFS) is a fintech company providing its propriotary product for end-to-end digital factoring: mFactor. mFactor offers a solution for B2B digital financial services, which are still underserved in the areas of mobile digitalisation and modern user experience.

 

Rasko Peric:
You enable banks to offer their factoring business on a mobile basis or in the cloud. Please tell us briefly what is behind this.

Hasibe Genova, AMFS:
Our clients are global Tier – 1 an Tier – 2 financial institutions/banks, as well as newly established factoring operators. We empower such intsitutions and their clients with seamless ‘mobile-web-core systems-ERP’ customer experience. From the intial factoring application, compliance verifications, client onboarding and document flow to the daily operational services and management of the factoring transaction – everything is done in a digital and truly mobile environment. mFactor not only provides the possibility to manage the factoring business while on the go (thanks to the mobiel interface), but it also brings value to all participants – the Bank/Factor, Sellers and Buyers – through digitalisating of each step of the factoring process.

 

Rasko Peric:
What obstacles do you usually face, also with regard to regional business in Bulgaria or perhaps in Eastern Europe in general?

Hasibe Genova, AMFS:
Well, I wouldn’t call them obstacles, but rather difficulties, mostly in changing the legacy processes within the financial institutions. We usually try to stay as close as possible to the existing processes, in order not to disrupt the business. However, switching from analogue way of doing business to complete digitalization also requires some efforts and will from the financial institution side. The technology is an enabler and in order to get the best out of it, the processes should be aligned and fine-tuned accordingly, as well.

 

Rasko Peric:
You also support companies or banks in entering the factoring market. What is the current situation here in view of the economic development in Bulgaria?

Hasibe Genova, AMFS:
Yes, we do indeed. Thanks to our 100+ years of cumulative team experience in the factoring industry, we also help new entrants in setting up the overall factoring business, including methodology, rules and procedures, and obviously the technology. We have recently started partnership with a new player in the Bulgarian market, CFN AD, which will be providing factoring service in the construction industry. The company has received 150M EUR of guarantee from the European Investment Bank (EIB) in order to help the economy stabilise and grow in this industry.

 

Rasko Peric:
A large part of the end customers are probably in the SME sector, correct?

Hasibe Genova, AMFS:
Our solution is definitely helping financial institutions to enter into the SME segment, which is usually underserved and/or has limited access to factoring services due to the operational document workload of the business. However, the cross-platforms, cross-entities and cross-markets integrations and digitalisation are at the core of mFactor and makes it suitable also for the complex environment of large institutions in the supply chain world. mFactor comes with an embedded integration layer and thus can be integrated with most of the core factoring/banking platforms, as well as most client ERP/accounting systems, which allows for bulk assignments where large number of invoices are issued.

 

Rasko Peric:
Nobody knows how the markets will develop in the future – in view of COVID and now also the war in Ukraine. What is your strategy for dealing with this?

Hasibe Genova, AMFS:
The current supply chain crisis caused by the pandemic and the war impacts directly the companies’ cash flow, which is expected to accelerate Factoring industry’s growth (as also observed during the 2009-2012 Crisis). In the same time, the clients’ demand for distant way of doing business is increasing as well. We are convinced that mFactor is a great fit in meeting this need by providing on one side digitalisation of the processes and on the other – giving the possibility to do business on the go thanks to the mobile interface for both the cients (Sellers and Buyers) and the factoring operator’s employees.

 

Rasko Peric:
Please tell us something about the mentality of Bulgarians: What is typically Bulgarian in terms of behaviour, habits and perceptions?

Hasibe Genova, AMFS:
That’s a tough one 😊 Bulgarians are pretty much like the Europeans in general. Older generations are reluctant in adopting changes; hence digitalisation brings them out of their comfort zone. At the same time there’s a significant part of the population that drives the changes and is very pragmatic and forward-looking.