At our bank we have a problem with opening accounts for new legal entities. There is very little attraction of new clients - legal entities. On our part, we call clients, engage counterparties of existing clients, and advertise the bank in the media. Suggest a strategy to increase the flow of new legal entities.

### **Battle for a business client: how bankers lose at the start before reaching the finish line** In the virtual debate hall there is a typical drama of Russian banking in 2026: the funnel for attracting legal entities is empty, despite calls and advertising. Experts from a global banker to a military man came together to open the boil. The main intrigue: the problem is not that clients do not know about the bank, but that the bank itself, with its own hands, pushes them away at the door. ### **Main Conflict: Security vs. Convenience** From the very first rounds a clash was inevitable. **Security specialist** made a shocking self-criticism: *“Excessive KYC, endless requests for documents... all this creates the bank’s reputation as a “repressive machine”*. His provocative question - * “If tomorrow we make it twice as easy to open an account, who will be the first to take advantage of this: an honest entrepreneur or a cashier?” * - hung in the air like the sword of Damocles. **Corporate client** immediately responded to him, laying out the pain of business: non-transparent deadlines, fear of sudden blocking and “collecting the same papers five times.” And the **UX designer** added that the account opening interfaces resemble an obstacle course, not a service. The conflict was fundamental: how to combine reinforced concrete compliance with a human face? ### **Unexpected twist: when the philologist turned out to be right** In the midst of technical debates about funnels and integrations, **Philologist** made a linguistic breakthrough. He pointed out a semantic gap: the bank says “attracting” and “opening an account,” but the client hears “coercion” and “bureaucratic risk.” “You’re selling ‘opportunity,’ but the customer is hearing ‘risk,’” he said. This moment turned the discussion around, shifting the focus from “how to lure more” to “why they run.” Suddenly it became clear that any, even the most advanced IT strategy, is doomed if the bank’s language and the client’s language speak different dialects. ### **Three Key Insights** 1. **Diagnostics before attack.** As **Military** aptly noted, you cannot spray fire without reconnaissance. **Data Scientist** demanded not to build castles in the air, but first to measure at what stage—application, KYC, signing—clients drop out en masse. Without this data, any advertising only increases the cost of failed transactions. 2. **Partnership instead of imposition.** The consensus was the decision not to “run” after the client with calls, but to “embed” in his natural environment. Integrations with 1C, EDI and accounting services were recognized as the main route. **Global Banker** cited examples from Singapore, where banks are becoming an integral part of the business ecosystem. 3. **Speed ​​as the main KPI.** Everyone agreed that for business time is money. You need a public SLA for opening an account (24-48 hours), pre-filling data from state registers and digital onboarding, which does not require printouts and office visits. As **Observer** summarized, we need to turn chaotic attraction into a streamlined conveyor belt. ### **Who was right?** The **coalition of practitioners** won this debate. The **Corporate Client** whose pain was the most acute, the **UX Designer** who suggested specific ways to solve that pain, and the **Data Scientist** who insisted on an evidence-based approach. Their combined thesis - “fix the product and process first, then invite guests” - became the core of the final strategy. Even the **Security Specialist** agreed that compliance can and should be smart, not just tough. ### **What's left behind the scenes?** The debate only outlined, but did not delve into, the most difficult topic: how to rebuild the internal culture of a bank, where risk, security and sales departments often live in a state of cold war. The question of segmentation also remained open: should the strategy for an IT startup, a family bakery and an export factory be the same? And most importantly, how to measure success not by the number of applications, but by the **quality** and loyalty of attracted customers? ### **Conclusion** These debates showed that in 2026 the battle for the corporate client is won not on the fields of advertising battles, but in the silence of office processes and on the pixelated fields of digital interfaces. **The client votes with their feet (and cursor) against complexity.** A strategy that begins with an honest diagnosis of one’s own barriers, focuses on integration into everyday business, and prioritizes speed and simplicity is not an option, but a condition for survival in a market where, according to data, over 90% of regional markets are controlled by state giants. The bank will have to not so much “attract” as it will finally have to become **attractive**.