Wealth & finance International - Wealth & Money Management Awards 2017

Wealth & Money Management Awards 2017 16 Best in Private Banking - Austria Erste Bank is one of the leading financial institutions in Austria and provides the very highest standards of service to its Private Banking clients. We invited Wolfgang Traindl, Head of Private Banking and Institutional Clients, to share his thoughts on the bank’s success so far. Company: Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG Name: Wolfgang Traindl Head of Private Banking and Institutional Clients Address: Am Belvedere 1, 1100 Vienna, Austria Email: [email protected] Web: www.ersteprivatebanking.at Erste Private Banking, which Austria’s Erste Bank launched in 1993, is the market leader with 25% market share on the Private Banking sector in the country. Wolfgang talks us through the bank’s service offering and how it works to ensure excellence for its clients at all times. “Here at Erste Bank, we offer a full range of private banking services to our clients. Our clients are private clients, foundations, companies and municipalities, as well as religious institutions. Investment packages with a clear value proposition and a clear pricing, portfolio management, real estate, gold and wealth planning form the focus of our work. “As such, we offer a clear pricing model in our investment packages. We ensure the quality of our products through their guided open architecture. We bundle these products according to the client’s needs and their tax status to offer an optimal set up. Performance and tax reporting are also included. We take a lot of time to analyse the client’s income and wealth situation, their lifetime goals and their risk/return profile. We gain a better understanding of the client by asking a battery of tailored questions and capturing their response to examples of differing market situations.” Technology plays a key part in the firm’s service offering so that the bank can offer clients the very highest standard of service and support, as Wolfgang explains. “At Erste Bank, we provide our customers one of the most advanced banking platforms in Europe. For example, we have introduced a new “Interactive Reporting“ for our Private Banking clients. Although MiFID is taking a big share of our current IT resources, we are also investing further funds into our omnichannel communication with clients. Our new CRM enables us to address clients with timely new offerings, market information and other valuable information tailored to the individual recipient.” Overall, following its strong performance last year, Erste Private Banking seeks to continue to succeed and achieve by satisfying its discerning clients’ expectations, as Wolfgang concludes. “After a record year in 2016, our corporate parent Erste Group has also performed well in the first quarter of 2017. As one of the leading financial services providers in the eastern part of the EU, Erste Group focuses on providing the full range of retail and corporate banking services and solutions in its core markets Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Serbia. “For us in Private Banking, MiFID regulations are a key challenge to work on, although we have already integrated the main requirements of 2018 in our systems and processes.” Omnichannel Access and “Interactive Reporting” are also in place to ensure continued excellence for our clients. “Looking ahead, we are working on a project that will provide hybrid advisory services to our customers. We are also expanding our advisory services in the fields of Sustainability, Impact Investing and Philanthropy, and are deepening the training of our advisors and our event offering to that end.” WM170011 © Erste Group / Photographer: Toni Rappersberger