Transfers planned
Cross-sell and cross-border
Personnel mobility
Learning curve
Dueto Vision 2005+an increasing numberof Local Banks will
be better able to serve large business clients. At the moment
a number of Local Banks can already serve this segment of the
market and so the goal of Corporate Clients is to actively
transfer clients to these Local Banks. Once the clients that will
be transferred have been identified, the transfer of the entire
portfolio will be discussed with the Local Bank. This is to avoid
'cherry picking' on either side. Given the turnaround time it is
estimated that the total portfolio of a particular field of activity
will be transferred to four Local Banks in 2005. Following that,
if possible, transfer of clients will be carried out with more
Local Banks.
'We are continuing to emphasize cross-
selling as this impacts on cliënt profit-
ability and yields, and increasing the
number of clients through acquisitions,'
he says. In addition, setting up cross
border deal teams remains a priority.
Schat reports that there are still some
difficulties in setting up these teams,
as there are always issues to be resolved
concerning local priorities, compensation
structures, deciding who owns the cliënt
and who gets the benefits. He says, This
has been especially hard in M&A but with
Ronald Blok and Frank de Bekker's help
in Europe this is improving.'
Job rotation is another idea that Schat is
exploring. According to Schat, Rl is strongly
market oriented and he would like to
import some of those people and ideas
into the domestic organization. Similarly
he would like to see, for example, product
people becoming Relationship Managers
- and vice versa - following his lead.
'I think it's very important that we achieve
the right balance between the product
side and relationship side of our business,'
he states. 'I believe our organization has
developed less on the relationship side
and now the product side is the strongest.
I'm interested in more balance. I'd like to
see more mobility; more people moving
between product groups and relationship
groups. It's important that our clients are
dealing with bankers who are very prof
essional and experienced as "all-rounders".
Currently we're the first point of contact
for clients in too few cases. This has to
change.Ofcourse, it's nota changethat
can be achieved overnight. It will take
time. But I believe we are in a very good
position, especially in the Netherlands,
so we should leverage that position.'
Schat also points out: 'We are learning
a lot in the sophisticated markets like
London and New York, we need to lever
age that knowledge as much as possible.
At the end of the day, it's not just the top
50 clients that should benefit from this
expertise, but the second and third tier
clients too which is our natural market.
The final message from Schat is that
further professionalization is needed with
a clear accountability and appropriate
rewards. 'It is important to have confidence
and to show some "guts". We can make this
into a success with all available resources!'
Overall, 2005 is shaping up to be another
transformative year.
The Word 13
