The Lower Austrian Raiffeisen banks

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E-banking
gaining ground
Raiffeisen banks
online
Customer deposit
guarantee scheme
launched
At year end the Tier 1 capital
of the Lower Austrian
Raiffeisen banks was up
by 5 percent to ATS 8.6 bn.
Total eligible capital resources
also increased
by 5 percent, to reach
ATS 10.8 bn. These figures
yield a Tier 1 capital ratio
of 10.7 percent and a total
risk asset ratio of 13.4 percent.
Capital resources
ATS m, as of 31 Dec.
1996
19 97
1998
1999
2000
8,895
(12.93%)*
9,393
(13.09%)*
9,861
(13.26%)*
10,292
(13.31%)*
10,773
(13.39 %)*
* Risk asset ratio
In 2000 a total of 3,171 persons were employed at 102 Lower
Austrian Raiffeisen banks, which had 598 branches.
The electronic processing of banking transactions continues
to gain ground. The number of e-banking enabled accounts
almost doubled in the course of the year. By the end of 2000
nearly 63,000 (11.5 percent) of the 547,000 current accounts
were already equipped with e-banking functionality.
With active assistance from RLB, two pilot projects, in
Guntramsdorf and Marchfeld–Mitte, created regional virtual
marketplaces. These give companies easy access to
local e-business opportunities. The concept is to be implemented
throughout Lower Austria.
All the Lower Austrian Raiffeisen banks now have their own
websites, accessible via the www.direkt.at portal.
In autumn 2000 the Lower Austrian Customer Deposit Guarantee
Association became operational as part of the nationwide
Raiffeisen scheme. These arrangements help provide formal
confirmation of the creditworthiness of the Raiffeisen Banking
Group as a whole, and add a legally binding agreement to the
informal solidarity already practised by the Group’s banks.
The Lower Austrian Raiffeisen banks
Mutual liability applies to all forms of customer deposits, includ-
ing savings, sight and time deposits, as well as to issues of
securities and, in the case of RLB, the deposits of other banks.
RLB assisted the Lower Austrian Raiffeisen banks by running an
information campaign, launched on 1 November 2000, on the
abolition of anonymous savings books. To familiarize the banks’
employees with the legal changes, between the start of August
and the end of September RLB and Modal co-organized
training courses for 500 staff members.
In its role as lead bank, RLB assisted its owners by launching a
number of joint projects aimed at optimizing their organization
and market development activities.
A benchmarking study conducted by an independent consultant
compared the market shares, earnings and productivity of the
Lower Austrian Raiffeisen banks with those of Raiffeisen banks
in other provinces, and of other comparable Austrian banks.
As a result the banks now have adequate, nationwide yardsticks
for measuring their performance.
The Raiffeisen banks need to reposition themselves to
adjust to a changed business environment. This is the
purpose of the “ERFOLG” (Success) projects being implemented
in conjunction with RLB, which are aimed at a
strategic realignment that will take members towards the
goal of “service driven banking”. Such projects have already
led to the professionalization and reorganization along
customer led lines of one-third of the business of the Lower
Austrian Raiffeisen banks.
An ever-increasing number of Raiffeisen banks are also
benefiting from the modern MER management performance
assessment formula. This permits profit oriented
bank controlling, from individual customers through to
product costing. MER is already being used to cost and
analyse almost 40 percent of all customer business in
Lower Austria.
The Lower Austrian Raiffeisen banks
End of the road
for anonymous
savings books
Benchmarking for
Raiffeisen banks
On the road
to service driven
banking
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