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

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blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1997 | | pagina 4