IPB IN Belgium 8 r private banking 1 WHAT'S NewS Issue 6 June 1996 addition, we look for industry specialization within each team so we can better understand and anticipate cliënt needs. We've hired several very promising new people - the team which markets larger corporates is almost entirely new. We have brought these people together with our corporate finance team in a single location in Brussels. Their brief is to target the top 300 large corporations in Belgium; around 100 are Belgian, the others are subsidiaries. We've also made a change in our approach to food and agribusiness. In the past, the food and agri sectors were tackled separately and on a regional basis. We've reorganized that now and brought that expertise into a single team that targets the market nationwide. We were According to private banker Frits Helders, the Turnhout operation can be compared to a representative office. Launched Erwitt Vandendriessche Frits Helders just over a year ago,the eight- person team's main concern is to advise Dutch clients intending to emigrate from the Netherlands on IPB, trust and estate planning activities. Many of these clients relocate to Belgium, but their assets often travel further. Their portfolios are managed by our international private bankers in, for example, Luxembourg or Zurich/says Helders. While this appears a relatively straightforward task, IPB account management is complicated by the fact that the relationship built up between cliënt and private banker is intensely personal. 'Our marketing efforts are aimed at member-bank clients who are often owner-directors of family firms.They are selling up, perhaps because they have no successor or simply because having worked 16 to 20 hours a day for decades, they want to enjoy their retirement. For fiscal reasons, it makes sense for them to emigrate.' STRUCTURING ASSET MANAGEMENT The Turnhout team is involved in every aspect of relocation. 'Once we've established contact with the cliënt through one of the member banks (we've visited around 100 member banks in the past 15 months), we try to discover exactly what the cliënt wants and needs. We help structure his asset management and then advise on placing those assets in, perhaps, Switzerland or elsewhere. It all depends on how much is involved.Clients with assets under around NLG 500,000 are usually advised to keep them in Belgium. Higher amounts usually go to financial centres specialized in managing extensive portfolios.' COMFORT FACTOR While the team is concerned to retain the client's assets for the bank,their advice and assistance is not only financial. 'We also talk to them a lot about things like how they will handle leaving their family and friends. We even help with finding a new home in Belgium if that is what they want. It really is a very personal relationship. Our aim is to make them feel as comfortable and as happy as possible with the bank.' RETAINING ASSETS While Helders and the other Turnhout private bankers have already given presentations to numerous member banks, there is still a hugetaskahead.'Estimates show that we have around 30,000 millionaires banking with Rabobank and based on previous behaviours, between 10 and 20 percent of those clients will ultimately emigrate to Belgium. Our task is to retain those clients for the bank - we're talking hundreds of millions in assets here. Every other Dutch bank is looking for those funds. But this is not only a reality in the Netherlands. I think our message to the network would be: Let's be aware of the assets in our organization and let's make sure we retain them for the bank.' well positioned in what you'd call the middle market, but we've also concentrated that know-how into one specialized team.' PROBLEM-SOLVERS Erwin Vandendriessche, head of corporate finance, believes the closer proximity to the Rabobank in Brussels The corporate bankers and corporate finance team are now located at: Avenue deTervueren 270, bte 23, B-1150-Brussels Telephone:+32 2 776 0020; Telefax:+32 2 771 4345. corporate bankers can add real value. 'We communicate much more intensely than before,' he says. 'You have to understand that as a corporate banker, you're in competition with other banks and coordinating centres. If you go in with no more than traditional products, then you're not offering any more than the other banks. What we're doing now is going into a large corporate with a problem-solving attitude.' CRUCIAL COOPERATION One of the aims of this new approach is to enhance cross- selling. The relationship manager clearly plays a central role, but both corporate finance and treasury are also inputting information and support on potential products. 'There's a comfort factor involved here,' Vandendriessche adds. 'If the relationship manager wants immediate support, we'll go along with him, or someone from treasury will join him. But sometimes it is more effective if he or she does the pre-marketing and brings us in later. Because we're physically closer, crucial communication is easier. And we're not only Roger Delcroix talking internally. We're also in constant touch with the international network.' GENERALISTS AND SPECIALISTS Back in Antwerp and the F&A met Antwerpen als vierde havenstad ter wereld. Een andere speciale doelgroep zijn de"coordination centres"Door deze fiscaal aantrekkelijke structuur zijn bijna alle Fortune 500 bedrijven in België vertegenwoordigd. PRIVATE BANKING Het Private Banking kantoor in Turnhout kan volgens Frits Helders vergeleken worden met een vertegenwoordiging. Het richt zich op Nederlandse Rabobankklanten die van plan zijn zich in het buitenland (meestal België) te vestigen. 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Rabobank Bronnenarchief

blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1996 | | pagina 8