BKS Bank’s goal is to operate as a so-called universal bank in every one of its national markets. However, market entries outside Austria take place step by step following careful market analysis and research. We have usually begun the process with a leasing company, and banking operations have been launched later.
Initially, customers are only offered a selection of banking products and services that do not necessarily involve cash transactions, and the range is then extended slowly. This strategy has proven effective in every one of BKS Bank’s foreign markets.
BKS Bank has been operating in Slovenia since 1998 and has now established itself as a universal bank there.
Its fifth branch opened in the year under review. Slovenia is one of Austria’s immediate neighbours. It is still our most important foreign market and already has our third-largest loan portfolio behind Carinthia and Styria. Our Croatian banking subsidiary BKS Bank d.d. offers its retail and corporate and business banking customers a complete line of banking products and services with the exception of securities services. Both lending and deposit operations developed satisfactorily in 2012. Once again, one of the main focuses was on acquiring salary account customers as the basis for future cross-selling activities.
The branch in Bratislava, Slovakia, was set up in 2011 with a product line that had been optimized for cor-porate customers. It has developed well since then. It launched products and services for retail customers for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2012. The new range includes current accounts complete with overdrafts, loans and saving products.
BKS Bank’s target groups are retail personal banking, retail business banking and corporate and business banking customers. In the corporate customers segment, we focus mainly on servicing small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing, business and trade sectors. Since we were set up as a pure corpo-rate and business bank, many of our relationships with corpocorpo-rate and business banking customers go back several generations. Cost-transparent account models, a commitment to providing high service standards, investment and export finance expertise and outstanding subsidy advice services ensure that our offerings generate a high recommendation rate.
In the retail banking segment, many customers choose BKS Bank to finance their dream home. Thanks to our solid business policy, we enjoy the trust of both savers and investors. This is crucial to business success in times like these. Primary deposit balances remain our most important source of funds.
We added private banking to our investment counselling range in 2011. We offer this service to custom-ers investing €200,000 or more. As of 1 January 2013, BKS Bank’s private banking unit became a separate organizational unit. A five-stage structured advisory process was added to its extended line of products and services. It offers its customers the IVV – Individuelle Vermögensverwaltung personal asset management service with its adaptable management models, special fund solutions, buy-to-let apartments, models for
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property investors and trust service. We took an important additional step to strengthen our securities operations by setting up a separate brokerage service for customers who already have extensive experi-ence in the capital markets. Furthermore, we added a precious metal deposit account service and invest-ment products to the range. Sustainability is one of the eleinvest-ments at the centre of the product design process. Our newest ecologically, socially and economically responsible asset management product was AVM-Nachhaltigkeit, which invests solely in sustainable and responsible investment funds. In addition, BKS Bank analyzed and restructured its entire securities deposit landscape so as to be able to offer its securi-ties customers modern securisecuri-ties account models that are tailored to their usage patterns. Our attractive line of securities deposit accounts ranges from our Start Depot, which we recommend to customers aged between 18 and 30 with accounts worth not more than €20 thousand, to the Klassik Depot variant for value accumulation with just a few different securities in one’s account to a Komfort Depot solution for investing regularly in various asset classes and the Premium Depot for high net worth clients who carry out corre-spondingly large securities transactions.
Communication
Transparent and open internal and external communication are very important to BKS Bank. We address our retail customers with the help of personal communication, classical advertising and the online media.
Since we do not have a nationwide network of branches in any of our national markets, we do not use televi-sion advertising. When advertising on the radio, we use popular regional stations to ensure that we reach our target groups as effectively as possible. The most important instruments we use are advertisements in the printed and online media and indoor campaigns at our branches that feature displays and attractive poster material.
Our retail customers particularly appreciate our events, whether small or large. For example, in 2012, we invited customers at a number of branches to information evenings dealing with investing, inheriting, giv-ing and cultural highlights in the region. The private bankgiv-ing unit’s invitations to performances at Kaba-rett Simpl and the Porcia comedy theatre were special highlights for many of our clients. We celebrated two jubilees in Croatia, BKS-leasing Croatia d.o.o. having been founded 10 years earlier and subsidiary BKS Bank d.d. having been a member of the Group for five years. This was celebrated at a big event held in the Mimara Museum in Zagreb, where some 300 guests enjoyed the music of Barbara Helfgott and well-known Croatian musician Mario Bocic in a summer setting. In the autumn, BKS Bank d.d. invited customers to the Kvarner Festival, which we were sponsoring for the first time.
There were a lot of changes to our online communication activities in 2012. Every BKS Bank website was relaunched, and this was achieved smoothly without any day-long downtime. In addition, we decided to have a corporate presence in various social media channels such as Facebook and XING from 2013. We began preparing this presence during the 2012 financial year. We want to increase awareness of the BKS Bank brand and reach younger target groups.
Since their individual requirements are paramount, we make little use of the mass media to communicate with our corporate and business banking customers. Instead, we communicate with them in a targeted manner within the scope of workshops, information events or personal advice sessions. Our biggest events for corporate and business banking customers included the award ceremonies for the TRIGOS Kärnten (Carinthia) and TRIGOS Steiermark (Styria) awards and lectures by Hans Reitz in Velden, Baden and Graz.
This charismatic Bavarian is creative advisor to the Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, who invented
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microcredits. Naturally we also offer our corporate and business banking customers a broad range of infor-mation on our website at http://www.bks.at.
We used press conferences and press releases to actively dialogue with journalists and we responded to numerous press enquiries. We keep our equity holders informed during our annual general meetings and with the help of publications and reports like our quarterly Shareholders Letters. These can be accessed online.
Our main medium for internal communication is the Intranet, which provides staff members with essential information about the enterprise round-the-clock, and this portal can also be used by the Staff Council. A relatively new instrument known as the ‘Pop-up’ that appears automatically each day when a computer is switched on tells people any particularly good news about the company as well as staff news. These pop-ups are both striking and appreciative. Our regular staff magazine, Cocktail, is also published in English. It provides a well-rounded review of the numerous professional and personal aspects of BKS Bank and the activities that take place within it. We also attach considerable importance to personal communication.
The Management Board presents the enterprise’s key strategies and numbers as well as the progress of projects and any innovations twice a year. The lively exchange of ideas and information within BKS Bank is rounded off by jours fixes that take place at the department or branch level as well as regular discussions with staff.
Staff
One of our key aims is to be an attractive employer. In other words, a high level of job security, above-average corporate social responsibility, intensive efforts to make it possible for staff to combine having a career with having a family and extensive basic and advanced training programmes are particularly impor-tant to BKS Bank.
In 2012, the entire banking sector saw itself compelled to undertake far-reaching rationalization, and this often involved laying off staff. Although BKS Bank too took action to improve efficiency and cut costs, it is part of our vision always to prioritize protecting jobs. In 2012, BKS Bank employed an average of 930 people (full-time equivalents), which was 29 more than in 2011. Most of the increase took place in our
Assets per employee, €m Annual average workforce
Consolidated assets, €bn SIZE OF WORKFORCE AND
BALANCE SHEEt ASSEtS BALANCE SHEEt ASSEtS
PER EMPLOYEE
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growth markets abroad. Within Austria, we were able to hire a number of highly qualified employees for Head Office and sales activities. The lasting success of our personnel strategy is evidenced (as the chart above shows) by the increase in efficiency (in terms of the relationship between the size of the workforce and our balance sheet assets) that we have achieved.
We are proud of our extremely loyal workforce and the high level of commitment and outstanding know-how of our employees. This feeling is mutual, as is demonstrated an average period of service with us of 14.9 years, 162 employees who have already been with us for more than 30 years and, not least, 1,416 unsolicited job applications in the year under review. Two members of our Management Board — Heimo Penker and Dieter Krassnitzer — celebrated jubilees that very few Austrian management board members ever reach. Heimo Penker had been working for BKS Bank for 40 years and had been a member of the Management Board for 28 of them. Dieter Krassnitzer had been working for us for 25 years and had been a member of the Management Board since 1 September 2010.