Banks underestimate the importance of service quality for corporate clients. Head of CIB Raiffeisenbank: lending should leave the leading position in the bank's product line

Nikita Patrakhin spoke about new services and how the bank will develop lending

Moscow. August 7. website - At the beginning of the year, Raiffeisenbank merged its corporate and investment banking businesses. In the work of the united directorate, it is planned to apply the experience of existence in a highly competitive environment of investment banking business and new technologies - big data, so that in the future 3-5 years, when interest rates in the Russian Federation decrease, the credit institution has competitive advantages. Nikita Patrakhin, Head of the Corporate Clients Service and Investment Banking Directorate of Raiffeisenbank, spoke in an interview with Interfax about how the bank will develop lending, as well as about new services.

In March, Raiffeisenbank merged the corporate banking department and the investment banking department, and you became the head of a new department. Please tell us about the goals of the business combination and the first results, do you see a synergistic effect?

It is too early to talk about the synergistic effect - too little time has passed for it to be expressed in money. In the market, it is believed that banks are merging corporate and investment banking blocks in order to sell more investment banking products that consume less capital and bring more commissions, therefore, are more attractive. But in reality, this only works in developed markets, where the volume of investment banking services is estimated at many billions of dollars and is comparable, or even surpasses, the income of banks from the provision of conventional banking services - lending, settlement and cash services, etc. In Russia, the situation is completely different. The market for IB products does not even reach 10% of banks' income from corporate clients. Therefore, our unification took place for a different reason.

Traditionally, the corporate banking business has changed rather slowly, despite high competition. All competition was centered around the cost of the loan. Change is now accelerating as technological development is reaching corporate bankers. More and more banks are gradually beginning to understand that lending is, of course, a good product, but, nevertheless, it ceases to be the main one.

In Russia, unlike most countries, interest rates are high, so our banks can still make good money on their loan portfolio. But if you look into the future, then on the horizon of 3-5 years, it is obvious that interest rates will decline. Accordingly, banks' interest income will fall, and as a result of competition, margins will decline. Banks that will not be able to build a transactional business model by this time will simply be forced to leave the market.

In the investment block, we have learned to compete without credit support and we want to extend this to the entire business with corporate clients. This is the main reason why we have combined investment and corporate businesses. We are going to revise our internal processes, and of course, we must change the approach to the technological development of our products. We will be engaged in data analysis. There is no less data in the corporate segment than in the retail segment. Correct work with data can bring colossal results to the bank.

We will certainly not stop lending. I even hope that this year we will increase our loan portfolio, although its growth will be small - about 5%. But we want to change its structure, and for example, reduce the share of commercial real estate. Clients in this area, as a rule, need only one banking product - a loan - and we are not interested in that.

But the growth of the portfolio in the segments of interest to us - FMCG (consumer goods - IF), telecoms, agriculture and exporting companies will be 10-15%.

- How will technologies be applied in corporate business?

We will be engaged in the development of our systems through which corporate clients interact with the bank, and technologies related to the analysis of big data - big data. There are two main purposes for which they are applied - analyzing the products that the customer needs and the pricing of those products. We have already started doing this, and I hope this year we will see positive results in the form of additional income. As an example, analyzing the behavior of our clients, we decide what price to set for the client for payments, so that he makes them with us, and not with some other bank.

The problem with most banks is that many see price as the only competitive factor. But in reality, the price is only one of the factors on the basis of which the client makes a decision, and very often it is not decisive. Life is arranged in such a way that you, as a consumer, do not always choose, for example, coffee based on the price criterion, but most likely you never choose that. A rare person, when ordering coffee in a restaurant, looks at its price on the menu. The same can be true with many banking products. There are many reasons why a client chooses a particular bank.

Please note: when you go on vacation, every year the prices for a hotel, even for the same one, go up. Maybe not much, but they grow - they never decrease. The hotel can make a discount, but at a higher price. As a result, a person pays more and more.

Mobile operators have also ceased to compete with each other only at the expense of the cost of a minute of conversation. The same will happen with banks. Naturally, since we have a player controlling more than 50% of the market for many products, this may take longer. On the other hand, Sberbank is the price leader and can speed up this process itself. But even without his participation, there is a large field for working with prices.

Most importantly, the point is not simply to take and increase the commission for a particular service or to make it invisible. Not at all. The idea is to find what the client really needs and in which he sees the real value of this or that service. It should be clear to the client what he is paying for.

We must move away from a model in which credit is the main product that attracts a company to be serviced by a bank. Credit should become product number 5-6 on the list of products we offer. If we learn to do this in full force, we will not be afraid of a decrease in interest rates in Russia, even to 0.

- What products will come first?

Depends on the client - all he needs. Someone needs currency control, someone needs ruble payments, someone needs guarantees, and someone needs bonds.

During the crisis, an important source of income for Raiffeisenbank's IB business was debt restructuring. What is the situation with this direction now, has it decreased?

Yes, unfortunately the crisis is over (laughs - approx. IF)... Restructuring proceeds were a large part of the investment banking division's earnings. Now the situation in the economy has noticeably improved, and accordingly, the companies that faced difficulties in 2014-2015 have already survived them and split into two parts - those who have solved their problems, and those who will not be helped by any restructuring. But we do not see companies that are in the middle and need restructuring.

- What will be the main sources of income in IB now?

The syndicated loan market has become noticeably more active. This year, probably, it will be the main source of income on a par with income from DCM.

- How much do you plan to organize syndicated lending for this year?

Our forecast for the volume of the Russian syndicated lending market in 2017 is about $ 10-11 billion. Since the beginning of the year, we have taken part in arranging loans for VimpelCom, RusAl, Metalloinvest and SUEK. There are several more large projects in the works now.

How much revenue is included in your department's business plan this year, and what proportion is expected from different business segments?

We do not disclose absolute figures. If we compare year to year, now the results of the Directorate in terms of profit are much better than in 2016. This is largely due to the lower level of reserves compared to last year. About 20% of revenues will be provided by their own operations in the capital market and about 5% - by revenues from servicing financial institutions. The remaining 75% is income related to serving corporate clients, of which approximately 30% comes from fee and commission income, and interest income on assets and liabilities is 40% and 30%, respectively.

Please tell us about your new Direct Market Access (DMA) project. Many Russian brokers offer it, how will yours differ? Will there really be direct access to the exchange, without the participation of a bank?

We offer classic DMA (Direct Market Access) and SMA (Sponsored Market Access), that is, the ability to trade on the exchange through us, a professional participant. With classic DMA, it is impossible to connect a client to the exchange bypassing the bank and make sure that he does not bear the bank's risk.

Of course, you can open a separate account for the client on the exchange, and he will directly transfer and withdraw money from him. But, nevertheless, he will still have a legal relationship with us, and he will bear the operational and credit risk of the bank.

We are negotiating with clients who are interested in the Russian market, but who, due to the insufficiently high credit quality of existing brokers, do not enter it. We hope that they will come through Raiffeisen, and besides that, our brokerage services will be of interest to local players - management companies, funds and others.

- Does opening a separate account involve taking the broker's risk?

Sure. When Russian brokers sell a DMA service, they say there are no risks or they are insignificant. But at the same time, if you talk to large foreign banks, you will find out that their compliance procedure for some of the Russian brokers will take two years. Nobody will even start this procedure, because it is extremely long.

There are clients who generally do not consider the option to sign an agreement in the Russian jurisdiction. Raiffeisenbank is the Russian subsidiary of a large European group, and foreign clients, at their choice, will sign an agreement with our head office or with us, and we will do the entire service, including connection to the exchange.

- There are VTB and Sberbank, they probably have such a service ...

Yes, but VTB and Sberbank, from my point of view, are currently not actively offering DMA, especially to foreign investors.

Will you be putting your servers on the exchange to speed up signal transmission? What investments in IT will be required for this project?

Our server has always been located in the data center of the Moscow Exchange, as well as in London. This is necessary primarily for our own operations. DMA clients are connected through the same servers. We have the entire infrastructure, we invested a lot in it when we built our own system for electronic trading in the Forex market. We keep an eye on who can make the fastest Internet connection between Moscow and London, because the count goes to a split second.

Large investors operating on different global platforms often use different technological solutions and systems for trading. These are mainly Bloomberg, Reuters, FIDESSA. We can connect a client through any of the systems quickly enough, not inferior in speed to any of the major Russian brokers.

- What investors want to get direct access to trading on the Russian stock exchange and why now?

These are international banks, investment companies, funds. The connection process is not fast - for a large client it can take 6-9 months. It is very simple to sign an agreement, and then you need to connect all the wires, their servers to our servers, then you definitely need to make IT improvements to integrate systems, then all this needs to be tested. Testing always shows some problems that need to be improved, then new testing. Only then does the real work begin.

With local clients, the process goes much faster: they have more or less standardized requirements for a broker. This allows you to complete the connection within 1-1.5 months.

Why didn't we have this product before? First, there are not many foreign banks offering DMAs to the Russian market. In my opinion, they are not very interested in this. As we know, many foreign banks even cut back on business in Russia or closed it altogether after 2014. Three or four Russian brokers are actively developing this area, but there is a market that is not covered by them. In addition, large foreign investors were not ready to enter the Russian market after 2014. According to our observations, it was only last year that they began to think about it.

- Which markets are the most interesting for investors and why?

On the foreign exchange and securities market (shares and OFZ). Our market is attractive for its volume and volatility. We have large volumes on the foreign exchange market, despite the fact that the ruble is a freely floating currency, its volatility is still quite high. This allows many algorithms and trading strategies to be applied.

The same applies to the stock market. On the whole, institutional investors are attracted by the Russian market, which is quite large. If they want to invest in stocks, they can theoretically buy any position on the OTC market. But real money investors are also becoming more and more technologically advanced, looking for more technologically advanced and cheaper ways to form their portfolio, making higher demands on the level of transparency of operations. Therefore, DMA access to the public market suits them well.

And for investors-speculators, of course, attractive is a small set of shares - "blue chips" - Sberbank, Gazprom and others. They have a huge daily volume and relatively tight spreads, which allows you to quickly open and close relatively large positions, "catch" small short-term price fluctuations.

Bonds are also of interest to foreign investors, but they are primarily attracted by the OFZ market. Oddly enough, we even recently discovered that foreign banks sell structured notes on OFZs to their individual clients, and in large volumes.

- Are your clients interested in our derivatives market?

For some clients, yes. If we talk about HFT and algorithmic traders, they are interested, strategic investors are less interested.

- What volume of investments, in your opinion, can you attract to the Russian market through DMA?

According to our estimates, the turnover of clients attracted by the bank for DMA, on the horizon of 2-3 years, may amount to $ 200-230 billion per year.

Nikita Patrakhin, Head of the Directorate for Servicing Corporate Clients and Investment Banking Operations at Raiffeisenbank, told Dengam how to fight for clients now and why digitalization in corporate business.

- Tell us about the priorities for 2018. Has the new wave of sanctions influenced CIB's strategy?

- Now we have two main focuses. First, we are focused on portfolio growth in all areas, and significantly faster than the market. In 2017, we have already managed to show impressive results. The total portfolio grew by 10%, and we overtook the sector by half. This largely ensured a 54% growth in the medium-sized business segment. We are not going to stop: in 2018 we have even more ambitious goals.

Secondly, we plan to radically change the approach to the development of our products and in the next one or two years significantly increase the level of digitalization of all products for corporate clients.

The US sanctions will have no impact on Raiffeisenbank's business and growth plans in Russia. The companies included in the new sanctions list only account for about 0.1% of RBI's total assets. At the same time, we have a reliable and stable business model adapted to any external shocks.

- Let's go in order. Lending is not growing, and there is a shortage of quality borrowers in the market. How to grow?

- You're right. However, a fairly large part of the economy is doing well and is developing at an above average pace. First of all, these are exporting companies, as well as enterprises focused on domestic consumption. Among the latter, by the way, there is a large share of foreign subsidiaries, which, of course, are our target clients.

In addition, we see a large number of medium-sized companies (with revenues of up to RUB 5 billion per year) with a steadily growing business. We are focused on accelerated growth in this segment by actively attracting new customers. For this, we have strengthened teams in the regions in order to be closer to customers and grow with them, to be a "home" bank for medium-sized businesses, which covers all the needs of each specific company.

It is very important that we do not set ourselves the goal of taking any market share. For the corporate business, as well as for the business of the entire bank as a whole, the main goal is the profitability of our operations. In the current environment, we see opportunities for ourselves to grow further while maintaining a consistently high level of profitability.

- That is, you expect that you can grow without lowering interest rates on loans?

- Speaking about growth, I mean not only the size of the loan portfolio. Almost 60% of our clients do not use credit products at all, another 10% use only short-term overdrafts or treasury loans.

In order to grow in the number of non-credit clients, the size of the interest rate is not important. First of all, such clients are interested in the level of service, speed and convenience of our procedures and processes. Therefore, we are increasingly engaged in the technological development of our products.

Of course, I cannot say that interest rates on loans are not at all important. Certainly important. Credit remains the main or primary banking product for many clients, so we have to compete on the cost of credit as well. We are very well prepared for this kind of competition.

Our unique advantage is the passive base structure. Raiffeisenbank has the highest share of current accounts among Russian banks in both retail and corporate business. This provides us with a low cost of funding and the ability to compete in ruble loan rates even with state-owned banks.

That is why it is so important to focus not only on the size of the loan portfolio, but also on attracting non-credit clients, and we are actively working on the development of non-credit products.

- How and by what means can you fight for these clients?

- Convenience and speed are important to customers. The client should feel that the bank is available and works just for him. The situation when a client feels that he is one of many, and must wait until his hands reach him, is absolutely unacceptable.

It seems to me that many banks underestimate the importance of the level of service in the corporate segment, mistakenly believing that a loan can tie a company to a bank and it will endure inconvenient banking procedures and processes. This approach works less and less. We began to focus on the quality and speed of our service long ago, realizing that we will never compete in terms of the size of loans. And this is another advantage for us.

We actively use NPS measurement techniques in corporate products. This helps us determine the issues that are most relevant to our clients. After all, both the market and the priorities of our clients are changing. Accordingly, we must change with them.

We are constantly improving our product line, we plan to significantly optimize the credit process and improve our customer relationship management (CRM) systems, so that customers feel comfortable with us.

- Through which CIB products do you see growth potential?

- Now we see that the syndicated lending market is becoming more active. Raiffeisenbank is among the top 5 organizers of syndicated loans in terms of the number of transactions, and this is and will be one of the main sources of our income. We structure turnkey transactions - from consultation to loan disbursement, acting as a paying agent, as a collateral agent, and as a documentary agent.

We have a very strong trade finance product line for both large and medium-sized businesses, and these products are in demand by an increasing number of companies. We offer not only classic trade finance products, but also complex and non-standard solutions with an individual approach to the requirements of a particular client. As part of the international RBI group, Raiffeisenbank has the broadest geographical coverage in the market for trade finance transactions and has competencies that local banks do not always have.

We are actively and ahead of competitors transferring the documentary business to digital. Last year, Raiffeisenbank was one of the first on the Russian market to issue electronic guarantees in favor of government agencies. New technologies significantly save clients' time and greatly simplify their paperwork and procedures.

The same is true for other products where we are traditionally active and where there is an obvious need to introduce new technologies and simplify remote communication with a client: in liquidity management tools, payments, currency control, etc. Updating the "bank-client" system, improving the client interface and functionality of the systems are one of our main priorities for the coming years.

- Are there still promising segments where the bank can expand with new products?

- We recently launched a factoring business, which made a huge leap in the past year. He has great potential. In the very first year of its factoring business, Raiffeisenbank became one of the largest market participants in terms of portfolio size.

We are absolutely precisely aimed at further growth in this area, both by launching new types of factoring, and by introducing new technologies. Already, our clients have access to not only classic factoring products with and without recourse, but also reverse factoring and two-factor international factoring through the international FCI network.

We definitely see good prospects in the leasing market: these services still have a very low level of penetration in Russia compared to other Eastern European countries, and we definitely have room to grow.

In general, for products that are not part of the standard line - loans, deposits, currency control - we see room for growth in the medium-sized business segment, especially in the regions. The regions are still severely under-covered in terms of such services and are worth investing in.

- Why do you see the need to invest in the digitalization of corporate products, which have traditionally been more conservative than retail?

- In general, our clients rate our services as very high quality. However, we must admit that this is often achieved through the individual approach of product specialists and client managers. This is certainly very valuable. But clients will value us even more if interaction with us becomes more convenient and as simple as possible.

We are confident that corporate business will inevitably come to the same level of digitalization as retail. But digitalization is not necessarily ecosystems, APIs and many other buzzwords nowadays.

In our understanding, this process has two sides. The first is what the client sees: he can perform all the necessary operations remotely, without having to come to the bank. Banks very often call digitalization the implementation of this particular part.

But there is also a second, integral and even more important part - this is how the bank and its operations change internally, how the approach to product development is being transformed. It becomes very fast and continuous. We want customers to see that we are truly continually improving our services.

Focus on the customer

New international client

Raiffeisenbank is the new financial partner of Virgin Connect, an international conglomerate of Virgin Group companies.

The bank provided Virgin Connect with a loan for 800 million rubles. for its investment projects and loan portfolio refinancing.

“It is very important for us that the partner bank is interested in supporting the implementation of our development strategy and is aimed at continuous expansion of cooperation,” said Andras Kovacs, Chief Financial Officer of Virgin Connect.

Medium business development

As part of its medium-sized business development strategy, Raiffeisenbank began cooperation with the Blesk InCare group of companies, a leading operator in the field of textile processing and rental services.

Raiffeisenbank and Blesk InCare signed several loan agreements totaling RUB 800 million.

"Since we are a fast-growing business, the most valuable for us are the minimum terms of the loan process - from the initial application to the receipt of money, a wide range of offered banking products and the bank's ability to effectively solve emerging non-standard situations. Raiffeisenbank fully meets all these needs of our business." - said the financial director of the group Ruslan Felsing.

Personalized services

Raiffeisenbank expanded the capabilities of the acquiring product by accepting bank card payments in the vending machines of Cafe + co, an international company specializing in the sale and installation of coffee machines.

The Bank sees the expansion of the range of services in response to the company's needs as strategically correct in order to continue mutually beneficial cooperation with a valuable client.

"We maintain long-term partnership with Raiffeisenbank and are always satisfied with the results of our collaboration, the quality of service and the bank's flexibility," said Tatiana Bugaeva, CFO at Cafe + Co Rus.

The largest deal in the industry

Raiffeisen Bank International AG and JSC Raiffeisenbank acted as organizers and coordinators of a syndicated loan for JSC Ilim Group, a leader in the pulp and paper industry (PPI) market.

The $ 500 million deal is structured as a four-year loan, signed in English law and syndicated to international investors.

The deal became the largest in the corporate debt market in the pulp and paper industry in Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS countries, according to Dealogic.

Long term partnership

Raiffeisenbank acted as the organizer and agent of a syndicated loan for PJSC ChTPZ, a leading manufacturer of pipe products.

The agreement for a period of four years was signed in Russian law for an amount of up to € 150 million. The terms of the transaction, structured as a dual-currency credit line, provide for an option to increase.

"Raiffeisenbank is one of the best financial partners of the ChTPZ Group. The agreement on comfortable terms allowed us to optimize debt service costs and strengthened our position in the international capital market," commented Valery Borisov, Director of Finance and Economics at ChTPZ PJSC.

Best projects

Raiffeisenbank provided financing for the national leader of the pharmaceutical industry - Geropharm LLC in the amount of € 11 million.

A leasing agreement until 2021 was concluded for the supply of equipment to equip the company's plant in the city of Pushkin.

The commissioning of the new production facility will fully meet the demand of Russian residents for insulin.

Nikita Patrakhin, member of the board, head of the directorate for corporate clients and investment banking operations of Raiffeisenbank, tells in an interview with Vedomosti & newspaper.

"Corporate business is underinvested in terms of technology"

- You have a lot of things in your office labeled agile. How long have you been interested in this approach?

- Around the same time as everyone else, there is also fashion in the financial market. We started actively using agile two years ago. We started by providing trainings, educating people, and encouraging the emergence of agile and scrum teams. It is important for us that employees themselves feel and accept agile as an effective way of working, so that change occurs on their own initiative. Soon enough, a lot of such teams appeared in our bank.

Nikita Patrakhin

Member of the Management Board, Head of the Directorate for Corporate Clients and Investment Banking, Raiffeisenbank

Graduated from Novosibirsk State University with a degree in Mathematical Methods and Operations Research in Economics, and then received a Master's degree from the Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE).
He began his career at Raiffeisenbank in 2001. In May 2006, he held the position of Head of the Corporate Finance and Investment Banking Operations of the Directorate for Servicing and Financing of Corporate Clients, and since July 2010, he headed the department of the same name in the Treasury Directorate. In February 2012, he joined the Management Board of Raiffeisenbank, and in September was appointed Head of the Corporate Finance and Investment Banking Directorate. Since February 2017, he has been the head of the united directorate for servicing and financing corporate clients and investment banking services.

- And what is the effect?

- Somewhere positive results were immediately noticeable, but in some products it was not clear whether there was an improvement and, if so, when it would become noticeable or measurable. After about six months, we decided to study each team in detail, make diagnostics: how it functions, how well and correctly people use the principles of agile / scrum, etc. We found that even in successful teams the reasons for this success are very different and not always in this Agile is to blame. Perhaps our main discovery was that people, using the same terms, understood them differently. In neighboring divisions, employees understood completely differently, say, what a product owner is. This is wrong, and for a large organization it can be very harmful. So we decided to streamline our agile implementation and start by agreeing on terms. But it turned out to be difficult. I remember that we were able to discuss only one issue at the board in three or four hours. We realized that the task was much more difficult, but it was worth it. We now have a much better understanding of what to do and more effective implementation of changes.

- Any change in the management structure of large companies is always a big risk. Does it make sense to extend agile approaches throughout the organization?

- There is no idea to extend agile to the entire organization. That is unnecessary. This is primarily required for the development of products with a large share of the IT component, and it is logical to implement it in those products and segments that are the most IT-dependent, where it really makes sense to assemble cross-functional teams. At the same time, there are many internal systems for which such an approach may even turn out to be harmful.

Agile is not a religion. There are four very simple and straightforward principles that describe the entire approach. The main point of which is that common sense is more important than thoughtlessly following procedures and rules. Alas, today, when they say: “We work in agile,” they primarily mean something else: a board with pasted colorful stickers, everyone is wearing sweatshirts and jeans. (Laughs.)

- Another trendy topic is blockchain. In September, your bank for the first time on the Russian market issued an electronic mortgage using the national Masterchain platform. Will you expand your work with blockchain technologies?

- At the moment, the industry is rather experimenting with where blockchain can be applied. As, for example, with this mortgage. Last year we with the company " Megaphone»Made a bond placement for them on the blockchain. It is possible to issue guarantees and letters of credit.

But there is still no common understanding of how to get measurable benefits from this technology. It is possible that when it begins to be used on an industrial scale and it begins to have a large impact on the business, everything will change, but it is not yet clear when this can happen.

It's not that there are any problems with the technology itself. Both banks and their customers must change and become ready for blockchain. In particular, to the same mortgage: the client must agree that his mortgage exists on the blockchain platform, and not on a piece of paper that he can keep at home.

- There is an opinion that the problem of blockchain in the corporate finance segment is that 99% of Russian companies are not ready for transparency, for example, in reporting - a significant part of the economy operates in a gray zone. Do you see this barrier?

- Not all processes need to be transferred to the blockchain. For example, the documentary business may well exist on it. There is logic in this. Perhaps lending and issuing securities. But when this will happen is not known. This may happen in a couple of years, or it may not take place in five years.

At the same time, it is believed that storing information and executing transactions in this way is more efficient and safer. But it is not yet clear that the transition to blockchain will suddenly drastically reduce the costs of banks and customers. Rather, on the contrary, implementation will require additional investments from all.

In addition, the regulation and legislation need to be drastically changed. Therefore, I think that the central bank will play the main role in this process and the speed of transition to blockchain will be determined by it.

- Another trendy feature on the market that everyone is talking about is big data. How active is Raiffeisenbank with big data?

- We have long appreciated the benefits of big data in the retail business and in the Capital Markets segment. But in the corporate business we hardly used it until recently.

- Why?

- It seems to me that the tasks that can be solved in corporate business with the help of big data are much less obvious. Therefore, the introduction does not take place in the first place. Now, based on our experience in other segments, we believe that there is potential for big data in corporate business as well. We are starting to actively engage in this.

"There is an opportunity to grow in absolutely any segment"

- How do you assess the results of the corporate block of Raiffeisenbank this year?

- In terms of financial results, this year is very good!

Maybe this sounds strange, because the country's economy is growing very slowly, there are practically no new businesses appearing. But the share of Raiffeisenbank is small, and we have the opportunity to grow in absolutely any segment. There are very good companies in the country that need banking services.

Raiffeisenbank JSC

Commercial Bank

Shareholders (bank data as of October 3, 2018): Raiffeisen Bank International AG (99.97%), Raiffeisen-Invest-Gesellschaft m.b.H. (0.03%).
Financial indicators (IFRS, H1 2018):
assets - RUB 934.7 billion,
capital - 129.2 billion rubles,
net profit - 17.4 billion rubles.
Takes 10th place in terms of assets in the ranking of Russian banks compiled by Interfax-CEA (as of October 1, 2018).

In 1862, Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, mayor of several villages in the Westerwald region of Germany, created the first banking cooperative, which became the prototype of the Raiffeisen banks. In 1886, the first Raiffeisen Bank opened in Austria. In the 80s. XX century Raiffeisen Group started opening subsidiary banks in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 1996 Raiffeisen Bank has been operating in Russia.

- Some time ago, the locomotive of the entire corporate segment was lending. What areas are you focusing on now?

- Lending will always exist. In general, it seems to me that it is wrong to say that all banks will become ecosystems. The key competence of the bank is risk assessment. First of all - credit risks. Until now, this has been the basic factor determining the success and efficiency of banks. Banks that know how to assess risks, feel great and show excellent financial results, those that do not know how to consistently show poor results. This is a basic thing, and, I think, for many years to come, credit organizations will not go anywhere from this. Even the fact that the size of the loan portfolio is a defining indicator of a bank's business suggests that a loan as a product is relevant. At the same time, I agree that banks should become technology companies - in the sense that service should become more technological and more customer-friendly.

Our credit income is about 35% of the total corporate business income. The remaining 65% is non-credit income, which is roughly equally divided into two blocks: commission and income from liabilities. But by the way, not all products bring us income.

- What do you have in mind?

- The most difficult product for us is acquiring. Sberbank having the largest base of individual clients, it can offer the lowest prices - those that for other banks will be on the verge of profitability or unprofitable. Therefore, we can look at acquiring only as a kind of additional service to our other products - the same cash-management or other solutions that our clients use. If, thanks to acquiring, the client uses other products and in general it is beneficial for us, then we are ready to accept the loss on acquiring.

"Not all companies are interested in state banks"

- In which segments is the bank growing the fastest?

- We are growing the fastest this year in medium-sized business and in the business of financial institutions. I am sure this will continue next year. In business with large companies, we also grow, but a little slower, because we have much more business there.

- Why is the medium-sized business segment growing?

- 3-5 years ago, the share of this business in our portfolio was very low - about 5% of the total corporate business. Our medium-sized business grew by 15–20% per year, but this did not at all correspond to the potential of this segment in Russia.

This year we were able to double this business, which in terms of the loan portfolio means that it already exceeds RUB 55 billion. At the same time, the total loan portfolio of Raiffeisenbank is about 430 billion rubles. From the point of view of lending, medium-sized businesses are more marginal than large ones.

- Do you have targets for medium-sized businesses? Let's say for a five-year perspective.

- I would not talk about a five-year perspective. The time is too far off. Our strategy is that we, as a universal bank, want to be present in all client segments. We have a strategy and a clear understanding of how we want to develop each of our products for the next 2-3 years, but we do not know what share we will occupy in this or that client segment. We do not have such a target indicator. We are always looking at where it is worth putting in more effort to increase profits.

Our shareholders evaluate us in fact by two indicators: Cost / Income Ratio and return on equity.

This is how we approach the assessment of our businesses in individual segments. In the short term, we see that growth in medium-sized businesses is more profitable than in large ones, and we have more opportunities there, and competition is lower. Therefore, we go there and grow there much faster.

- Why is competition low? State banks are not interested in this segment?

- Interesting. But not all companies are interested in state banks. And there are very few alternatives on the market.

- To what extent are medium-sized businesses today interested in investments, additional financing?

- The economy is almost not growing, and the investment activity of companies, both medium and large, is very low. I do not see the potential to increase it yet.

The main need of companies is to increase working capital and investments related to the renewal of fixed assets. The banking market can easily cover all these needs.

- Do your clients in medium-sized businesses have regional specificity?

- The loan portfolio of Moscow clients is about 30% of the total portfolio in the segment. For example, in large business, the share of the Moscow portfolio is about 65%. I think this reflects well the overall distribution of business in our country. The only peculiarity that can be noted is that medium-sized companies in Moscow are less heavily credited than similar companies in the regions. Many Moscow clients do not need loans at all.

- How do they pay on loans?

- Our statistics on reserves in medium-sized businesses are much better than in large ones. This is contrary to economic theory. (Laughs) But the secret is simple: we have strict requirements for borrowing companies. On the one hand, we want to be a democratic bank in the sense that we are ready to work with companies of any size. But we are very concerned about credit risks. This approach, I think, often helps our clients to look at their business in a different way. They are beginning to understand what is important for banks, what we consider risky and what is not. This helps them in making their business decisions and maybe in a more accurate assessment of their business risks.

There is such a fact that it is harder to bargain with a smart client. Plus, he usually has higher bank requirements. But here we just can show ourselves, because in terms of the development of services and technologies, we are more advanced in many positions than other banks. And it's good when a client can appreciate this and cooperate with us not because we gave him a loan, but because he sees additional value in working with us.

- How many products are there on average for one of your customers?

“We only have a few large business clients who use only one product. We call such clients portfolio clients. On average, we have about six products for each active client.

- Last year Raiffeisenbank joined the Association of Factoring Companies. Why are you interested in this business?

- This is exactly the product in which we want to grow very strongly. It allows us to take credit risk for companies that, in principle, do not take loans. Incidentally, these are very high quality borrowers, often international ones.

Factoring allows us to finance clients to whom we would not be ready to lend directly. And everyone is happy! And we make money with low risks.

- How do you develop this business?

- This is a relatively new product for us. We have been actively offering it to clients for only about a year. Initially, we began to build factoring as a technological product with the maximum level of automation and digitalization. I hope that at the end of this - early next year, customers will start using its updated version, and I look forward to a wow effect.

This is a really convenient and good product with a large digital component - a minimum of interaction with the bank, with people, with pieces of paper. We will be the first in the market to offer customers a new level of speed and convenience in remote financing of deliveries.

- And what about leasing? You recently had an interesting property lease deal.

- Yes, it was. We have leased a building for the German Chamber of Commerce. This is a unique deal - real estate leasing requires deep expertise and an individual approach to developing an offer. The deal is very good, albeit modest in scale. I would like more of these.

I don't think that leasing of buildings will be actively developing now. Most likely there will be some single transactions. We find such chips in the market where everything seems to be clear, and we can implement them. In general, our leasing portfolio is still very small - about 11 billion rubles. But we are obliged to have this product, as there are clients who need it and are interested in it. We expect leasing growth in the next 2-3 years, but I do not know yet whether it will be comparable to the growth in medium-sized businesses. One thing is for sure: this business segment will grow faster than the average corporate portfolio in the market.

- It seems to me that there are no special barriers, and this applies not only to medium-sized businesses. Of course, there are common problems in the Russian economy, which can be discussed for a long time, but it is possible to work with them. Most of the barriers to any business are related solely to their own limitations. With the limited time of the owners, which they are ready or, conversely, forced to spend on the business, with a limited vision of the future and prospects of their business, with the qualifications of managers.

There are entrepreneurs who start doing business in a certain segment. And it seems - the market is busy and nothing new, in theory, they can not bring there. And suddenly their company becomes successful! Very often this is not due to the fact that they came up with some kind of superfood. They just started doing their business right. They didn't stop at the constraints that are holding back their competitors.

Look at international companies doing business in Russia. If you talk to the CEO / CFO of these companies, it is very rare to hear dissatisfaction with their Russian business. On the contrary, they say that they like working here, that the business is very successful here.

That is, in general, there are many opportunities in our country - and especially for medium-sized companies. Naturally, we can talk about difficulties. But one way or another, they are everywhere. And the restrictions are primarily personal. As they say, in the heads.

- The Central Bank in September raised its key rate for the first time in four years. Have the financial conditions for your clients changed as a result?

- It seems to me that it went relatively unnoticed for the clients. Of course, interest rates on loans increased - but within 0.5 p.p. And since the previous couple of years everyone lived in conditions of constantly decreasing rates, nothing terrible happened because of the growth of 0.5%. So far, I do not see any tangible impact of this event on either medium or large businesses.

But if we talk about the situation in a broader sense, then, of course, there are consequences. For example, we see fewer bond issues, because it is much more profitable for companies to take out a loan than to issue bonds. But this is a temporary phenomenon.

- But the market is waiting for tougher sanctions?

- I think that now the new sanctions have already been included in the price. Could the sanctions be tougher than expected? They can. Will this be a disaster? I think no. It is important that no one expects that the sanctions will suddenly disappear, everyone understands that they will be for a long time. Naturally, from time to time, when politicians raise the level of discussion about new sanctions, we will see higher volatility in the market. But these will be temporary phenomena. The market adapts very quickly.

Even in the event of the most severe sanctions imaginable, the Russian market, as large enough, will be able to function in isolation. Yes, this will be a new level of rates, the ruble exchange rate, but the market will develop, and with it the banking system. &

Text: Tatiana Ternovskaya, Anfisa Voronina

Svetlana Sagaidak left the post of the chairman of the board of directors of Sberbank Kazakhstan

From February 21, 2017, the powers of the chairman of the board of directors of Sberbank Kazakhstan Svetlana Sagaidak were terminated ahead of schedule.

The Supervisory Board of Sberbank decided to dismiss Svetlana Sagaydak from her positions in the Sberbank group due to her personal initiative and the expiration of the contract with the international Sberbank group from March 1, 2017.

Svetlana Sagaydak has worked in the structure of Sberbank for nine years. Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sberbank, Head of Sberbank International Svetlana Sagaidak headed the Board of Directors of Sberbank Kazakhstan from December 28, 2016 to February 21, 2017. In accordance with the decision of the board of directors of Sberbank Kazakhstan, Natalia Lazareva was elected as the chairman of the board of directors.

Rostislav Yanykin headed the card business of Russian Standard

The fact that the card business of "Russian Standard" will be headed by the former head of the card business of Sberbank Rostislav Yanykin, reported the newspaper "Vedomosti" on February 26 with reference to one of the retail bankers. This was confirmed by a bank representative. Yanykin clarified that he has been working at Russian Standard since February 1 as an executive director of the credit and card business: “My tasks include developing a new strategy for the bank's card business.”

“In addition, Rostislav's area of ​​responsibility includes building long-term relationships with key partners and payment systems,” Ilya Zibarev conveyed through the press service of the bank's executive board. growth ". Given the changes in the dynamics of the banking business, the renewal and development of the credit and card business is especially important, says his answer.

The interlocutor of Vedomosti pointed out that over time Yanykin may become a member of the board, since the card business is one of the key business for the bank. The press service does not comment on this.

Binbank re-elected the board of directors, Mikhail Gutseriev became the chairman

At the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of B&N Bank, held on February 28, 2017, a new composition of the bank's board of directors was elected. It includes Mikhail Gutseriev, Angelica Anshakova, Georgy Arakelyan, Sait-Salam Gutseriev, Said Gutseriev, Alexander Lukin, Kirill Lyubentsov, Sergei Maryin, Avet Mirakyan, Petr Morsin, Sergei Popov, Alexander Filatov and Mikail Shishkhanov.

Also on February 28, a meeting of the board of directors was held, at which Mikhail Gutseriev was elected chairman of the board of directors of Binbank, and Sergei Maryin - deputy chairman.

“This is a natural process in the development of B&N Bank. Mikhail Gutseriev is the founder and main shareholder of B&N Bank, and this is the person who provides and will continue to provide the bank with the main support. Sait-Salam Gutseriev and Said Gutseriev also joined the Board of Directors of B&N Bank, this is absolutely logical within the framework of the family business structure. Nothing will change in the operational management of B&N Bank - I will continue to lead the bank as president and chairman of the board, ”commented Mikhail Shishkhanov, co-owner of B&N Bank. Georgy Arakelyan, Alexander Lukin, Avet Mirakyan, Petr Morsin and Sergey Popov (financial director of Slavkali IOOO) also became new members of the board of directors.

Nikita Patrakhin will head the directorate for servicing and financing corporate clients of Raiffeisenbank, Oksana Panchenko left the Raiffeisen group

Nikita Patrakhin, member of the board of Raiffeisenbank, takes over as head of the department for servicing and financing corporate clients of the credit institution. According to the bank's press service, the appointment will take effect after the approval of his candidacy by the Bank of Russia.

The Directorate of Servicing and Financing of Corporate Clients is merged with the Directorate of Investment Banking Services into a single structure.

Nikita Patrakhin has been with the bank since 2001, since 2012 he has been a member of the board, head of the Directorate for Capital Markets and Investment Banking Services. As head of the corporate banking and finance department, he will remain head of Raiffeisenbank's investment banking business.

Oksana Panchenko, Member of the Board of Raiffeisenbank, Head of the Directorate for Servicing and Financing Corporate Clients, informed the Board and Supervisory Board of Raiffeisenbank about her decision to develop her further career outside the Raiffeisen Group.

Oksana Panchenko began her career at Raiffeisenbank in 1997 as a Corporate Account Manager. In 2008, she became a member of the Board and headed the Directorate of Servicing and Financing for Corporate Clients.

Ivan Glazachev became the head of Yandex.Money

On March 1, Ivan Glazachev, a former member of the board and executive director of Russian Standard Bank, became the CEO of Yandex.Money. The current CEO Maria Gracheva will continue to work in the company as a development director. She will focus on new fintech projects and new market research.

In addition, the composition of the board of directors of Yandex.Money has changed. Now, from Sberbank's side, it includes Lev Khasis, Elena Baturova, Vladislav Kreinin, Irina Shvakman, and from Yandex's side - Alexander Shulgin, Evgenia Zavalishina and Mikhail Parakhin.

Ivan Glazachev has been working in the field of merchant acquiring and payment services for over 13 years. For the last ten years he worked at Russian Standard Bank, since 2012 he has been a member of the board. In the position of CEO, he was in charge of the acquiring and transactional business unit. The bank's team led by Ivan has created the third largest acquiring network in Russia, developed and implemented the largest whitelabel card-to-card money transfer platform, which is used by many commercial organizations in Russia. In addition, mobile and internet banking were successfully restarted. Ivan holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University in Toronto, majoring in investment and corporate finance, and a bachelor's degree from Moscow State University of Commerce, majoring in world economics.

Olga Makhova became a member of the board of Deltacredit mortgage bank

Olga Makhova, Head of the Risk Management Service, has been appointed a member of the Board of Deltacredit Mortgage Bank. The corresponding decision of the Board of Directors was made after approval by the Bank of Russia. This was announced on March 7 by the press service of the credit institution.

Olga Makhova has 14 years of experience in retail business and risk management. She started her career at Societe Generale Group in 2005 at BSGV bank. In July 2016, being the head of the retail credit risk department at Rosbank, she joined the Deltacredit team and became the head of the risk management service. Since the end of February 2017, she has been appointed a member of the Management Board.

Olga is a graduate of Nizhny Novgorod State University with a degree in Mathematics, Cybernetics and Economics.

Education

He received his first higher education at Novosibirsk State University, from which he graduated in 1998 with a degree in Mathematical Methods and Operations Research in Economics. Qualified as an economist and mathematician.

In 2000, he completed his studies at the Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE) in Moscow with a Master's degree in Economics.

Labor activity

He started his career at Raiffeisenbank in 2001. Since May 2006, he held the position of Head of the Corporate Finance and Investment Banking Operations Directorate for Servicing and Financing Corporate Clients, and since July 2010, he headed the department of the same name in the Treasury Directorate.

On February 1, 2012, he joined the board of a credit institution, and in September he was appointed head of the corporate finance and investment banking department.

09/04/2013 headed the Directorate for Capital Markets Operations and Investment Banking Services.

On February 22, 2017, on the Raiffeisenbank website, information appeared that two directorates 1) servicing and financing corporate clients and 2) investment banking services were merged into a single structure, for the post of head of which the candidacy of Nikita Patrakhin was proposed. At the same time, he remains the head of Raiffeisenbank's investment banking business.