Polish citizens have
started to put unprecedented
amounts of cash into
investment funds and
savings accounts
BGZ's CEO Jacek Bartkiewicz:
The Polish dream
of cash into investment funds and savings accounts.
The mortgage finance market is also booming, with
a compound annual growth rate of more than 30%, and
is expected to reach the EUR 70 bln benchmark by 2011.
Consumer lending is set to grow by more than 18% in
the period 2008-2011.
So, it's not difficult to see why Rabobank is keen to gain
a firm foothold in the Polish market. It is one of the largest
countries in the CEE region and the sixth most populous
state in the EU. It also stands at the very heart of Continental
Europe, with easy access to 250 million consumers within
a radius of 1,000 kilometres. Poland commands the cross-
roads between Eastern and Western Europe, stretching from
the Baltic coast in the north to the Czech Republic and
Slovakia in the south, and from Germany in the west to
Russia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine in the east. And
since the demise of communism in 1989, Poland has also
transformed itself into a stable, democratie country with
strong institutions and a rapidly developing economy.
Moreover, Rabobank's acquisition of a majority stake in
BGZ comes as the sleeping giant, that is the Polish economy,
is putting its western cousins in the shade.There is strong
"When I was appointed to BGZ in 2002, long before
Rabobank came into the picture, the future of the bank did
not look promising. In that year, we suffered a loss of
340 million Zloty (EUR 88 million) and we were still under the
supervision of the National Bank of Poland. The situation has
since turned around completely. Last year, profits amounted
to 192 million zloty (EUR 51,4 million) and, once again, BGZ
has attractive prospects, which are in part attributable to
the participation of Rabobank in BGZ."
"In 2005, after Rabobank had decided to participate in BGZ,
we formulated a new strategy. New priorities were set, a new
structure was put in place and the bank was rebranded. Since
then, many processes within the bank have been improved,
such as our non-performing portfolio. At the time, this
amounted to 20% and we have managed to reduce this to
4%. In addition, we have improved our approach in the bank's
branches. In the past there was far too much of a wait-and-
see attitude when it came to looking for customers. This has
now clearly been adjusted. The result of these changes is that
we have now raised our level of service to be comparable
to that of Rabobank."
"If you place Rabobank and BGZ side by side you can see
a clear difference in practices and people, despite our
identical values. Within the process of further collaboration
we would like to use and introducé as many ideas from our
Dutch colleagues as possible. But at the same time we want
to keep our Polish identity and not lose touch with it. I spent
twelve years at another Dutch bank in Poland. This has given
me a good insight into the Dutch banking world. Rabobank
is extremely focused on its long-term relationships with
its customers. BGZ does this too, but we want to become
even better. Furthermore, we see that Rabobank is closely
involved in the local environment of the customers and this
is something we wish to develop further."
"Up until now the banking sector in Poland has hardly
experienced any consequences of the international credit
crisis. The only difference compared with a few years ago
is that there was still a signifrcantly large supply of liquid
assets in the market at that time, but that has completely
disappeared now. We have recently determined our
strategy for the next four years. Our goal is to acquire
a position amongst the top ten banks in Poland. In order to
achieve this we would like to improve our position in the
small and medium-sized towns and cities. We will therefore
open about 150 new offices in the coming years. It is
important for us to grow even more so that we can further
reduce costs. We also expect a lot from our collaboration
with Rabobank Polska. This will give us the opportunities
to provide an even better service to our large customers
in Poland."
ISSUE 17 OCTOBER 2008 THE WORD 1 1