The increasing complexity and changeability of the banking environment forces the banks to perfect their internal business processes with a view to improve the overall efficiency of their operations. To this end, banks employ new methods such as value management, lean management, outsourcing or reengineering. The paper describes the experience of a large Polish bank where it had been undertaken to improve personal loan management. The team had realised the need to fundamentally restructure the bank's personal loan processing in order to achieve higher customer satisfaction with respect to service quality, price and speed. The functional approach was abandoned in favour of a process approach, creating conditions to introduce reengineering, a technique not very widely known in Poland at that time. The method's point of departure is to evaluate the expectations and requirements of the customers. Its cornerstone is the idea of introducing comprehensive changes to the company's business process, the process which determines its capability to fulfil customers' needs. Reengineering personal loan operations in the bank in question involved a new division of tasks, both in direct and indirect selling. Additionally, back-office operations were centralised and a centre for personal loans set up. Further, credit risk management was improved and the scoring method introduced in evaluating applicants' creditworthiness.

The process resulted in a tangible progress, as the customers' perceptions of the bank improved. On the other hand, by strengthening its position in retail banking - a field of activity not to be ignored in today's tight market - the bank consolidated its overall market position.