BUDAPEST - MAKING A BANK
4
international expansion
What'S NewS Issue 1 January 1997
Until very recently, Rabobank International's presence in the emerging markets of
Central and Eastern Europe was almost token. Not that the outposts in Warsaw and
Budapest were inactive. Both were extremely active in their role as rep offices. But
1996 saw Rl commit to the region in a big way. Warsaw became Rabo-BRP Bank and the
Budapest rep office began the lengthy process of gaining a banking licence. November
15 was the red-letter day for the Budapest staff as Hungary's State Banking Supervision
signed the licence and sealing a two-and-a half month period in which the brand-new
operations team had 'worked like crazy' to make a bank. What's NewS was there for the
celebration.
operations team in a very short space of
time. Go and talk to them. Let them teil
you what they've done.'
WORKING GROUP
First stop is, of course, operations manager
Laszló Vissy. There's still a slight scent of
new paint in the very young operations
department. But the buzz of activity will
soon blow away any newness that lingers
following the bank's move to its new
premises. 'That's the dealing room,' says
Vissy, pointing to a still uninhabited space
next to his office. The equipment is there,
but the team is waiting for the dealers.
'But our basic operations team is already
in place,' he says, surveying the open plan
office where the new system is currently
being subjected to intense testing. 'We've
installed Microbanker,' he explains.
'There will be a common Rabobank system
(Atlas) at some point. I know people in
Utrecht and elsewhere are working on
that. But we needed a good system and we
Tamds Simonyi
needed it now. So we put together a
working group with colleagues in Utrecht
and examined all the options open to us.
The result was this PC-based system
which we'11 also be able to link up to the
commercial people. Another consideration
here was cost, of course. Essentially,
Microbanker was the best on our short
list and the price was reasonable.'
Laszló Vissy, operations manager: 'our basic
operations team is already in place'.
RESOURCES AND RESTRAINTS
The team is more than happy with the
system, but they're equally happy with the
way it was selected. Says EDP manager
Karoly Felkl: 'The working group to select
our system involved the people here, the
people who would ultimately be using it,
in a really significant way. As new recruits
to the bank, L think we've all been pretty
impressed about the way Rabobank does
things.' Vissy agrees. 'Fm not just saying
this,' he says, 'but we really appreciated
the way head office listened to our views
and involved us in this whole process. The
Henk Leliveld: 'We've got our banking
license'.
'They looked like zombies at the end,' says
Fdenk Leliveld, praising the team of whom
most joined the bank only in September
and have since managed to bring the
whole operations system online - ready for
what the Budapest Rabobankers expect
will mean the start of growing business in
Hungary. Unlike colleagues in Poland,
there was no ready-made bank from
which to launch operations. 'For quite
some years,' Leliveld explains, 'we were a
small commercial team - Dominic
Terberg, Mare van Strijdonck (APFT) and
Gabriella Evinich - carving out a market
for the bank. But we were a rep office and
as such had no need for a sophisticated
operations unit. The go-ahead to pursue a
banking licence changed all that, and the
recent arrival of Tamas Simonyi, the new
general manager, will also change how we
approach the market. But what has really
pleased and impressed me is the way
we've been able to put together an