Marko Ranković, General Manager and Executive Director of Raiffeisen Processing Centre in Slovakia – How I fell in love with processing and payment cards

Dr. Marko Ranković, the General Manager and Executive Director of the Raiffeisen Processing Centre (RPC), could be described in one sentence as a man whose love for cardmaking took him from his native Mladenovac all the way to Bratislava, and meanwhile he is also a professor, former football referee and, above all, a husband and father.

Marko tells us about his success, career and life choices, but also reveals the key challenges and trends in card making.

eKapija: Tell us more about yourself and your career path?

– First of all, thank you for the opportunity to talk about, I hope, interesting topics. A young man from Mladenovac, I grew up in a time that was not easy, but in a family that made growing up easy. For many years now, a former federal football referee (or referee of category I), I completed everything that could be completed at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences at the University of Belgrade, an associate professor at the University (mostly as a hobby), spent more than half of my life in the card business and payment cards, very happily married to a Radmila, proud father of four children (you can see the consequences in the photo – no hair, gray beard...).

And the career path... I'll start again with: I was lucky – almost 20 years ago my mentor and friend, prof. Dr. Vojkan Vasković, then still a master's student at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, asked me: "Would you like to work at Euronet?". That question was the first step. At Euronet, I completely fell in love with processing and payment cards, first as a programmer on the IBM AS400 platform, and later as a Project Manager, then responsible for Fraud Management, and then... after Euronet, the path led me to SAS, then from SAS - to Telenor Bank – where I was again responsible, among other things, for everything related to processing. After that, Chip Card – my love only deepened with the wonderful people of Chip Card and Payten, together we made… miracles. From the development of the company in every sense, to one of the most respectable processing houses in the region.

And then... RPC – Raiffeisen Processing Centre, Slovakia... we changed everything, as a family... the country, the children went to Slovak schools, they all learned the language (I say they, because I'm still behind them, but I'm trying), they adapted to some other habits – and here I want to thank the RPC and Slovakia for the way they have accepted us, as their own... a lot has changed, except... except that my relationship with processing and the card business flourishes and develops... a love that is here to stay.

eKapija: Most of your professional career is related to the banking industry, specifically to the field of payment card processing. How do you see the development of card industry in Serbia, but also in the region?

– The card industry has proven to be one of the most resilient branches of the banking industry. When you look at some of the basic branches, such as loans and deposits, you see trends that are significantly influenced by external factors (global movements in the price of money, political (in)stability, wars, pandemics, the situation, i.e. macro (but also micro) economic parameters of the local markets, etc.), while the card industry manages to maintain a growth trend (which is not so rarely in the double-digits from year to year).

The card industry in Serbia has been following development trends for years, and enables its users to use the latest technology (e.g. the ability to pay with a mobile phone, as a technology), but also functional opportunities (e.g. GooglePay). If you compare the opportunities offered by the Serbian market compared to other markets in the region, whether they are in the EU or outside it, the offer differs in minor details. I would say that the functionalities are mainly conditioned by the creativity of people who work in the card sector, especially in product development in local banks, as well as colleagues who develop products in card organizations.

eKapija: To what extent have contactless and mobile payments changed the regional market?

– Everything starts from the user. The need to make payments faster and more comfortable "pushed" the card industry many years ago to think about how card payments could be... easier. The development of modern technology certainly helps us to have many opportunities that we can potentially use in card making. Contactless payments are not just "tap" and pay, they also mean more time for other things: we wait less in queues, because payments are made faster. It is important to say that contactless payments are as secure as any other payment method.

If you keep in mind that mobile phones have long since become an inseparable part of our everyday life, even much more than they should, then their "marriage" with payment cards is one of the revolutionary steps in the development of the card industry. At the beginning, many said that the cards would cease to exist. I'm glad they were wrong, the cards still exist in mobile phones, only in a digital form.



eKapija: You live and work in Bratislava. How different are the habits there compared to here when it comes to using cards?

– I have to start with Slovakia and Slovaks. Slovakia is a beautiful country, and Slovaks are good people. I cannot say that the goodness factor plays any role in the use of cards, but Slovaks use cards more often than people in Serbia. There are many reasons, and one of the most important is a habit that has been developed through opportunity. You remember the project from a few years ago ("Digitalization of Belgrade Markets"), which opened the possibility for people to pay the seller in the markets with a card – in Slovakia, this possibility has been available for many years. I recall a stroll along the Boulevard (the Revolution Boulevard:)) with my wife and children 7-8 years ago and eating popcorn. Long story short, the kids wanted popcorn and I only had cards in my wallet. I don't even have to finish the story with: yes, the wife had cash... A fair assumption would be that I changed my habits – and again it would be wrong – but the possibility of not being able to pay with a card in Slovakia has significantly decreased (the wife still saves us from time to time). It is precisely this wide, and almost unlimited, possibility to pay by card that has led to the fact that cards are used much more often in the local market in Slovakia than in Serbia.

eKapija: Along with your career in industry, you are also engaged in scientific work and are a professor at the Faculty of Information Technologies and Engineering. Is it difficult to balance the two jobs and what is your recipe for success?

– Regarding the professional career, my first love and desire was to be a teacher (and those to whom I was not a teacher as a 5- to 10-year-old, "don't know what suffering is"). That wish came true later, somehow spontaneously. While I was working at Euronet, in Serbia, I got my doctorate and already then, in 2010, I started to "professionally" engage in teaching-scientific work. Over the years, the harmonization of those obligations simply worked. I can't say that it was always easy, but what always helped, and it was maybe even crucial, was the support of both my family and my employers. There are always moments when something has to be endured, and you have to sacrifice something – and I was always lucky that everybody had understanding for me, and I will always be grateful for that.

For the past few years, my academic career has continued at the Faculty of Information Technologies and Engineering, and I participate in teaching-scientific processes at the Faculty, mostly "remotely" and "live" whenever I can. I was elected to the position of associate professor at the Faculty-University. In addition to this engagement, in Bratislava, at the Faculty of Information Technologies of the Slovak Technical University, I work as a mentor and examiner for postgraduate studies (doctoral and master's studies).

Recipe for success: a little craziness, perseverance, and support from family and employers.

eKapija: It is interesting that you were also a football referee of the First League in Serbia for 14 years. Love for football, passion or something else? Do you still manage to follow football?

– Yes, I was a football referee for 14 years and that experience significantly contributed to my personal and later professional development. Why did I start? I don't know, I just loved being a football referee long before I became a "real" football referee. I started a course at the Association of Football Referees in Mladenovac in 1995, refereed my first game in 1996, and then 575 games until 2010 and the last 4 years in the First League of Serbia. That ride was incredible: contacts, friendships, decision-making under pressure, risk management, how to stay calm in dangerous situations... and much more – and, yes, all from the experience of a football referee. That's why I say that the career of a football referee has shaped my private and professional life, and it still does, years later.

eKapija: Tell us about the latest world trends in card making?

– The development of technology in the world conditions and inextricably affects the development of card making. If we take only one that we have all heard about and hear about every day: AI (artificial intelligence), and the lightning-fast development of this field in recent years, only those opportunities that AI provides will have a transformational impact when we talk about user experience, about the fight against fraud, about predicting user behavior, communicating with users...

Online/Internet payments are constantly increasing and new solutions are being sought in this area in terms of easier shopping (popularly known as: "check-out"), i.e. to make shopping in an electronic store as intuitive, fast and with as few steps and as little effort as possible.

Further development of the application of biometrics in payments is expected (currently the most widespread are fingerprints and facial recognition), again with the aim of making payments as simple as possible. I will quote two friends here, and they will recognize who they are. One said that "people don't buy to see how payment works, but to buy something". This simple sentence actually changes the attitude toward (among other things) payment card payments, because the focus is on the cardholder and their needs, and not on the payment card itself – and that is the engine of the development of payment card technology. And the other said: "Soon we will be looking at – think and pay" – these are the possibilities that lie ahead of us, only the sky, if even that, is the limit.

eKapija: What are Raiffeisen Processing Centre's plans for the next period, when it comes to our region?

– Raiffeisen Processing Centre is one of the largest, if not the largest processing center in our region. Next year we will approach the mark of 3 billion processed transactions (in one year). RPC's greatest value is – people! In periods of peace, but also in periods of crisis, RPC people managed to fulfill the demands of our users, while maintaining the overall quality of service. This is exactly what we plan to keep, and to further improve – technologically, functionally, and procedurally – in the years to come. RPC will be a stable and reliable partner of our clients. We look forward to the future!

Raiffeisen Bank International AG Wien

Raiffeisen Processing Center Bratislava

Faculty of Information Technologies and Engineering

Faculty of Information Technologies and Engineering of the Slovakian Technical University

Marko Ranković

card business

payment cards

mobile payments

football referee

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