Annual Report 2004

The OeNB — An Innovative,
Dynamic and Cost-Efficient Enterprise
Balance of
payments — the new
reporting system for
AustriaÕs external
trade statistics
Operational
risk management at
the OeNB
2003 Intellectual
Capital Report — the
prototype for a new
annual publication
Progress with
IT-related preparations
for Basel II
model for future cooperation and the
division of responsibilities in IT-related
matters.
In 2004 the OeNBÕs IT-related activities
centered around the implementation
of the new reporting system
for the balance of payments statistics.
By the end of the reporting
year, the systemÕs key components
had been completed and tested. Another
central activity was the organization
of an information campaign
targeted at reporting agents in the financial
sector. The campaign comprised
a road show, which toured all
of AustriaÕs provinces, and several special
lectures organized together with
various interest groups. In December
2004 the Balance-of-Payments Reporting
Regulation ZABIL 1/2004
of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank
2 was published. It provides a detailed
description of reporting requirements
in the financial sector.
The TOPAS/TOPIT project, designed
to transform the OeNB into
a partner for risk analysis and the
supervision of financial stability, was
successfully completed on schedule
in late 2004. In the course of this
project, which had been launched in
January 2002, the OeNBÕs analyses
of the banking sector and of individual
banks were generally overhauled;
moreover, the applied methods and
technical aspects were updated. As
an important step, primary data management
was reformed to incorporate
state-of-the-art features. Measured
against other central banksÕ
and supervisory authoritiesÕ results,
the OeNBÕs new models of banking
analysis have proved very successful
by international standards. The IT-related
preparations for the New Basel
2 See www.oenb.at under the ÒStatistics and ReportingÓ heading.
Capital Accord (Basel II) consisted of
the expansion of the processing systems
for banking statistics, the Major
Loans Register and the existing banking
analysis tools.
The introduction of operational
risk management at the OeNB
(ORION) and the ensuing close cooperation
between the responsible
OeNB divisions reduced potential
risks by improving contingency management
at the interfaces between
the various divisions. Furthermore,
the OeNB for the first time conducted
a LAN failure test under live
conditions in 2004. The annual business
continuity test, which ensures
that the infrastructure needed to conduct
business is available, was also
completed successfully.
By publishing the prototype of
what is to become an annual Intellectual
Capital Report, the OeNB has
once more reaffirmed its leading position
in the field of transparent corporate
governance. The report is
ideally suited to communicating informationontheOeNBÕsintellectual
capital and thus promotes the OeNBÕs
policy of actively providing comprehensive
facts to the general public.
In line with the OeNBÕs mission
statement and strategic orientation,
the first Intellectual Capital Report
defined knowledge goals with respect
to human, structural, relational and
innovation capital. The report outlined
the underlying Intellectual Capital
Report model, the OeNBÕs
knowledge goals and ways of measuring
their attainment by defining suitable
indicators. The Intellectual Capital
Report is an innovative product
which will serve as a controlling tool
in the future.
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Annual Report 2004