'In Control': the auditor's motto
Bill Padula
Country Banking in the Americas
'Becoming more regionally-run was a main objective for us,'
explains Rob Niesert, Head of Global Administration. 'Bringing us
closerto regional business development helped boost efficiency.'
Global Administration'sfour regional Chief Administrative
Officers (CAOs) cover RI's global business reach: Bill Padula
for the Americas (New York), Mike Austin for Europe (London),
Robert Edwards for Asia (Singapore), and Victor Cuyckens for
Australia-New Zealand (Sydney). Add Niesert and Bernie
Adamson, Global Head of IT Infrastructure (London), and you
have the entire Administration Management Committee (AMC),
six men working closely together for several years. 'Our team
was put in place in 2000 when Rl was a loss-making part of the
Rabobank Group,' explains Niesert. 'Rl is now responsible for
30% of the Group's profits. To get here from a cost reduction
perspective while continuing to provide the support needed to
grow the business, we knew we would have to perform radical
surgery in many areas; we knew we would have to focus on the
end result for the whole entity. Within three years, costs were
more than halved and the business even received the right
support for increasing revenues.'
Global Administration supports RI's thousands of processes and
the systems that run them. It also develops solutions for
upcoming business needs and solves problems as they arise. 'It is
a big, complex mandate demanding flexibility, discussion, and
close collaboration so we have intensive communication around
the globe,' says Niesert. The mission statement for the department
is concise: To provide technology and operations solutions and
services to RI's business in a well-controlled, timely, and cost
effective manner.'
Taking care of the Americas (North, Latin, and South) is CAO Bill
Padula'sjob. Based in New York, he travels throughout the region
to make sure things run smoothly. 'We have had an interesting
challenge recently while integrating a bank and two finance
Recent large-scale frauds (Enron, Allied Irish Bank and
World.com, to name a few) have increased the audit and
compliance burden on banking worldwide. Audit and
compliance are components of fast-growing regulatory
requirements dedicated to make banking more secure,
responsible, and controlled. The buzz-word used most often
in this context is the auditor's phrase, 'in control'. (See page 9
forthearticle, Preventing 'unpleasant surprises'.)
'Large-scale frauds like Enron have created turbulence,'
says Bill Padula, the Americas' CAO. 'Different layers of
bureaucracy want more and different reports.' The area of
audit and compliance has become an increasing drain on
administration. 'Audit and compliance are intricate, difficult,
and expensive,' says Cuyckens. 'Of course, they are essential
but they come at a huge and rising price.'
Controls are built in to administration systems but they
alone do not satisfy the regulatory and other requirements.
Extensive reporting is required. 'Reports are ubiquitous and
everybody is hungry for them,' explains Cuyckens. 'Everyone
wants more reporting and everyone wants reports prepared a
little differently.'This means that an existing report might
satisfy 80% of another report's requirement but the 20%
missing still has to be generated.
