Awards for Excellence 2016
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Erste Bank’s deep relationships across central and eastern Europe, with governments, corporates and individuals, are unparalleled, which makes it an even more compelling bank for the region’s wealthy. Erste Bank wins the award for this year’s best bank in the region for wealth management.
In Austria, where it is headquartered, the bank takes care of 10,000 clients. It has roughly another 9,000 private banking clients in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Romania. Wolfgang Traindl, head of private banking and institutional clients, says there are many challenges in the region that his bank has been responding to. Pressure for greater transparency is one, which led the private bank to introduce three tiers of service bundles with new pricing.
Another challenge says Traindl, “is that productivity always has to be improved by implementing new streamlined internal processes”. The bank started a new customer relationship management software project that will be completed by the end of this year to help its advisers.
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Wolfgang Traindl, |
Clients seem to like it. In fiscal year 2014 (the last available public data on the bank’s regional business) net new assets rose by 6.8% (up €1.2 billion). The same growth is expected to be reported for fiscal year 2015, meaning the private bank now manages close to €19.5 billion.
In addition to offering investments in every asset class, including gold and diamonds, and the ability to structure tailored products and solutions for clients, the bank has been focusing on digital innovation. Clients have access to interactive reporting and video-conferencing tools. They also benefit from the bank’s George platform, launched last year, that analyses cash flows, classes of expenses and allows customers to fix appointments directly with their personal advisers.
