Wealth & Finance International - Wealth & Money Management Awards 2016

www.wealthandfinance-intl.com 23 Erste Private Banking Best for Private Banking - Austria Erste Group is the leading retail and commercial bank in Central and Eastern Europe. We invited its Head of Private Banking Wolfgang Traindl to tell us more. Company: Erste Bank Private Banking Name: Wolfgang Traindl (Head of Private Banking) Email: [email protected] Web: www.ersteprivatebanking.at Address: Am Belvedere 1, A-1100 Vienna, Austria Telephone: +43 50 100 13066 Erste Group is headquartered in Vienna and has major market shares in the banking markets in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia. Wolfgang provides an overview of the firm’s services in the private banking sphere. “The services we offer start with a thorough analysis of the client’s life and wealth situation, as well as their future cash flow needs. That analysis leads to an individual-specific portfolio suggestion involving either an advisory or a managed portfolio. We also focus on providing our clients with wealth management services. These are bundled in our local private banking units, which support the general account manager in all respects of wealth related issues: portfolio management, treasury busi- ness, custody, wealth planning, succession planning, gold, real estate, etc. We offer our private banking services as of a threshold of 300,000 euros in financial assets.” When working with a new client, Erste Group’s advisors have a checklist of questions that they ask the client before on-boarding, thus ensuring that the advisors understand the client’s needs, their risk appetite, and the goals for their investments. Wolfgang explains how this knowledge ensures that the client is fully aware of the risk they are taking and en- sures that the bank manages each client’s portfolio appropriately. “After a thorough risk/return analysis of the client, we formulate an investment policy that is strongly focussed on providing a broad diversi- fication of the client’s portfolio. We use all categories of bonds, equities, real estate, hedge funds and precious metals to realize this broad diver- sification. We manage the clients’ portfolio actively to protect it against excessive volatility, especially in times of strong market corrections.” The wealth management industry is increasingly reliant on technology to support its clients. Wolfgang explains that as such, Erste Group is looking to digitalise many of its processes in the future in order to remain at the forefront of industry developments. “We see technology as a major tool of convenience for our clients in that it supports our personal approach. For example, we have an interactive online reporting tool in place which allows the client to take an interac- tive look at their portfolio and analyse it at any time.” “As such, the successful implementation of digitalization both within our organisation and in our client-facing offerings will be the big challenge for the next years. The first will improve our efficiency and productivity, while the latter will further improve the customer experience we can offer.” As his final comment, Wolfgang adds that there are additional signifi- cant changes happening in the wealth management industry which will provide his firm with exciting opportunities moving forward. “Our industry is in a phase of significant change. During the late 1990’s and until the dawn of the financial crisis in 2008, maximum perfor- mance was the key issue for clients and money managers. Nowadays, a much more holistic approach is needed to fully address clients’ needs. The current low interest rate environment is fostering the need for answers to a whole range of questions: How can I protect my wealth against inflation? How can I pass on my wealth to the next generation? How can I navigate my wealth through the high volatility of securities markets?” WM16005