Staff headcount
At 31 December 2009, the BPI Group’s workforce numbered 9 437.
In domestic operations, notwithstanding the admission of 476 new Employees, the staff headcount fell by 3.9%
(-301), in part as a consequence of the programme of 200 early retirements approved at the end of 2008 and which materialised in the first four months of 2009.
In international operations, the workforce grew by 240, which represents a 15% increase.
At the end of 2009, Banco de Fomento Angola’s headcount stood at 1 838 Employees, while the number of BPI Portugal staff seconded to Angola remained unchanged at 14.
BPI Group staff complement
Number
Age and experience at BPI
40 As % of Group’s total
%
Average period of service in BPI
1) Includes fixed-term contracts and temporary employment of persons with no binding work contracts with BPI.
At 31 December 2008 and 2009, the number of Employees with fixed-term contracts stood at 724 and 485 respectively, while for the same years, the numbers relating to overseas operations were 15 and 18 respectively. In turn, the number of Employees working on a temporary basis in Portugal was 132 in December 2008 and 171 in December 2009, while overseas there was only one Employee working under this regime.
In average terms, in the period 2008 and 2009, the number of Employees with fixed-term contracts in Portugal was situated at 752 and 622 respectively, while the corresponding figures for overseas operations were 28 and 17 respectively. In turn, the number of Employees working on a temporary basis in Portugal was 177 in December 2008 and 166 in December 2009, while overseas there was only one Employee working under this regime.
Temporary employment costs are recorded in the books under the caption General and administrative overheads.
2) Overseas branches and representative offices.
BPI Group Employees1
Year-average figures
Banco Português de Investimento 2 163 161 (1.2%) 153 167 9.2%
Other subsidiary companies 3 108 84 (22.2%) 102 100 (2.9%)
[= Σ 1 to 3] 4 7 681 7 385 (3.9%) 7 674 7 496 (2.3%)
Overseas branches and
representative offices 5 219 214 (2.3%) 226 215 (4.9%)
Subtotal – domestic activity [= 4 + 5] 6 7 900 7 599 (3.8%) 7 900 7 711 (2.4%)
International activity
Banco de Fomento Angola 7 1 598 1 838 15.0% 1 557 1 719 10.4%
Subtotal – international activity [= 7] 8 1 598 1 838 15.0% 1 557 1 719 10.4%
Total [= 6 + 8] 9 9 498 9 437 (0.6%) 9 457 9 430 (0.3%)
Table 4
Report | Human resources 25 Of the total 7 140 Employees making up Banco BPI’s
workforce at 31 December 2009, 5 597 (78%) were deployed in the commercial area and 1 543 (22%) at central services, at the same time as efforts continued to be directed at obtaining efficiency gains in processes.
Banco Português de Investimento’s activity remains centred on the Equities, Corporate Finance and Private Banking businesses, the backbone of which is a young, experienced and highly-qualified workforce with specific technical skills.
BFA’s workforce has as its main characteristics the high level of academic qualifications – 58% of Employees have completed or are studying for a university degree – and its youth – the average age being 29.
Training
In 2009, 99.8% of the Employees attached to BPI’s domestic operations took part in training initiatives, which represents an expressive increase on the preceding year (79.2%). E-learning courses contributed to this improvement.
Training activity chiefly concentrated on lending support to the implementation of large-scale projects directed at the commercial networks and support units.
The training rate (investment expenditure on training as a percentage of payroll costs) was 1.36%.
The percentage of Employees who attended classroom-type training in 2009 was less than in the preceding year: 63.7% vs. 69.7% in 2008, However, the average training hours per Employee climbed from 22 to 27. The expenditure on training per participant was 493 euro (539 euro in 2008).
The structured courses in e-learning covered some 99%
of Employees, a significant increase when compared with the previous year’s 70%. The average hours devoted to training was 18.
The expenditure on e-learning training per participant was 74 euro in 2009 (108 in 2008).
Assistance was given to 147 Employees studying for university degrees and to 97 Employees taking post-graduate and specialised courses.
Training leading indicators
2009
Employees attending training 99.8%
In-house courses 99.6%
External courses 3.1%
Training hours per Employee (average) 35.2
Average duration of training (hours) 3.2
Personnel allocated to training 0.13%
Training rate 1.4%
Table 5
Technology
BPI’s IT platform comprises computer application systems and the physical infrastructure the architecture of which is founded in a multi-channel approach which integrates the web and transactional environments, and the security control and compliance components.
The efficiency, availability and performance indices consistently present values that guarantee compliance with the predetermined objectives, thereby demonstrating the efficacy and rationality of resource utilisation – fundamental pillars of the Information Systems area’s strategy and involvement.
The efficiency and innovation aspects were the object of the Information Systems area’s focus throughout 2009 with the realisation of various projects and initiatives, amongst which the following merit special mention.
New telecommunications solution
Banco BPI modernised its entire communications infrastructure, upgrading it with the latest state-of-the-art technologies and thus providing the commercial network and central services with a significant increase in the broadband capability, service quality and the robustness of the telecommunication lines’ infrastructure.
As regards voice communications, a cutting-edge solution from a national perspective was conceived and adopted whereby total communications integration between the private and public (fixed or mobile) networks was secured at all the Bank’s premises, based on an infrastructure solely supported by the communications protocol Internet Protocol IP and by centralised IP connection with various telecommunications operators.
Optimisation of loan processing
A review was carried out of the systems supporting the contracting of personal loans and cards, integrating within a common platform the overall processes and modules relating to the capture, risk analysis and contracting of these and other credit products offered to Customers.
Paperless initiatives
The dematerialisation programme embarked on in previous years warranted in 2009 additional investment which permitted the extension of the digital treatment of Customer correspondence with the electronic availability of tax returns and other documents.
Citizen card
Banco BPI was the pioneer in Portugal in the
simplification of banking processes – namely the opening of bank accounts – with recourse to this new electronic document.
Application adaptations were made and card readers installed throughout the commercial network, at the same time as an infrastructure was installed which guarantees the security and integrity of the process and the data.
Efficiency, availability and performance in Portugal Selected indicators
2009 2008
Central systems processing capacity
(in millions of instructions per second) 1 647 1 647 Middle range systems processing capacity
(in thousand transactions per minute) 1 482 1 549 Central and middle-range systems storage
capacity (in terabytes) 42.0 46.7
Personal Computers per Employee1 1.25 1.26
Employees with access to the intranet and e-mail 100% 100%
Page views on the intranet, per day (x th.)2 1 800 1 500 Employees with access to the Internet 40% 40%
Availability of transaction sites 98.2% 98.2%
Page views on the Internet per day
(all the BPI sites) (x th.) 2 060 1 768
Systems availability at the branches
before 8.30 a.m. 99.8% 100%
Real time in cards: from 7 a.m. till 4 p.m. 99.6% 98.5%
Response time to transactions at the branches
(less than two seconds) 99.4% 98.6%
Transactions on the multi-channel platform
per day (x th.) 1 360 1 680
Technological help desk: resolution of problems
in less than two hours 88% n.a.
Technological help desk: resolution of problems
in less than 15 minutes n.a. 92%
Table 6
1) Including Personal Computers without specific user and the ones dedicated to management, monitoring and testing tasks.
2) Intranet ceased to be the main supporting platform for several internal applications.