international expansion
WHAT'S NewS Issue 1 January 1997
Karoly Felkl, EDP manager: 'ifthis is the
Rabo culture, then we love it already'.
freedom they gave us was tremendous. We
were given resources - and restraints,' he
laughs. 'But it was up to us to get the best
possible system. That was so helpful,
especially as our team was so new. If this
is Rabobank culture, then we love it
already.'
CASH-BASED ECONOMY
Unlike most international branches, the
Budapest system also has to handle
current accounts. 'This is mainly a cash-
based country,' explains controller Gabor
Trenyik. 'So the system we selected had to
be able to book and monitor every kind of
transaction.' Hungary is certainly one of
the best achievers in Central Europe. But
it still has some way to go before plastic
takes over trom cash. 'Some of our
^^bustomers will be paying salaries in cash,
so we have to offer them a current
account facility if only for that reason,'
says Vissy. 'People here expect their bank
to provide the full range of services.
Clearly, cash management - international
DE BANK IN
BOEDAPEST
De vertegenwoordiging in
Boedapest is uitgegroeid
tot een kantoor.Tweeëneenhalve maand
lang werd hard gewerkt aan de voorberei
dingen om het kantoor operationeel te
krijgen en op 15 november vorig jaar kwam
de officiële bankvergunning binnen. Het
team staat voor een zware taak. De
concurrentie op de Hongaarse markt is
groot en de bedrijven, die meestal maar
met twee of drie banken zaken doen,
verwachten een volledig pakket diensten
te kunnen afnemen.
F.l.t.r. Judit Kozak, Controller Gabor Trenyik and Maria Wind.
Dominic Terberg
Gabriella Evinich
goes live, they can sit back - albeit
momentarily - and congratulate
themselves on a job well done. 'But this is
only the start,' Maria says almost
gleefully. 'We can't wait to get the first
accounts going and we're expecting to be
kept very busy.' Just how busy the team
will be depends very much on the
commercial department's efforts. At
present, Budapest is working on its
business plan - more on that at a later
date. However, this is an exciting, though
overbanked, market where opportunities
are abound, also in neighbouring
countries.
cash management is somewhere in the
future as the Forint is not yet fully
convertible - cash pooling, electronic
banking, and a current account are all
part of that full range. Even very big
customers tend to have no more than two
or three bank relationships, so you need to
offer everything, including the finest
treasury products. I remember most of my
colleagues at the operations managers
meeting last spring were astonished when
I said we'd be doing current accounts. But
we need them, they act as an entry
product for a customer.'
READY AND WAITING
Now the operations scene is set, it is down
to the commercial people to bring in the
customers. 'We're ready and waiting', say
Judit Kozak and Maria Wind, who handle
the customer services and documentary
payments side of operations and have just
finished testing their procedures. It has
been a tough few months for the whole
team, but as each segment of the system
