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een years on, the bank still attracts more responses than any
other provider in Belgrade. Though its scores are down on a year
ago, its persistence is paying off: portfolio investment in Serbia
turned positive in 2015. Category scores for the bank (see page
80) are divided roughly equally between Satisfactory (4.00-4.99)
and Good (5.00-5.99)
Raiffeisen Bank International
Raiffeisen operates through a local subsidiary here rather
than via a link to the local central securities depository (CSD).
Although its response pool in this market is small, the average
scores in all service areas are close to perfection, particularly in
the area of relationship management. This, it seems, is not simply
a local triumph. “All account management done out of Vienna,”
explains a client. What is not managed from Vienna is the steady
expansion of the Raiffeisen network throughout Serbia. This
gives the bank a solid foundation to support portfolio investors.
Société Générale Securities Services
Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) Belgrade has pro-
vided a service here since 2008 and built a modest market share.
Though the bank agreed late last year to sell its Serbian bank to
the acquisitive OTP Group, it nevertheless received a number
of responses. They were too few in number to make definitive
judgments.
Vojvođanska banka
Vojvođanska banka, the indigenous provider that collected a
near-perfect set of scores here last year, has disappeared from
the survey in 2019. Acquired initially by National Bank of Greece
in 2006, the bank is now part of the OTP Group that is active in
nine countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The merg-
er process with OTP banka Srbija will be a distraction.
B A N K S
I N
F R O N T I E R
M A R K E T S ]
owned by the London Stock Exchange. The BSSE needs to
attract more IPOs, and encourage more trading of equities, to
bolster its own finances, let alone the attractiveness of the Slova-
kian capital market. Significantly, it put its non-trading fees up
in January this year. In the post-trade space, the State-controlled
National Central Securities Depository (NCDCP) prides itself
on getting things done. It migrated successfully to the TAR-
GET2-Securities (T2S) settlement platform operated by the Eu-
ropean Central bank (ECB) less than 18 months after signing the
agreement to do so. It was also one of the first CSDs to re-license
under the Central Securities Depository Regulation (CSDR) of
the EU, completing the process in just five months.
UniCredit
As in many markets in central and eastern Europe, no provider
receives more responses in the Slovak Republic than UniCred-
it. The average category scores do not stand out, though the
details prove that clients have no issues with the core services of
settlement, asset servicing and safekeeping. The bank is seen as
relatively expensive, however. “We are supposing change of the
provider (for pricing reasons mainly),” confirms a client.
Československà. obchodni. banka, a.s. (CSOB)
Were it not for a paucity of responses, and lower scores in a
handful of specific areas, this would be an outstanding set of
scores. Clients are demonstrably satisfied with the core ser-
vices of settlement and safekeeping, and do not regard CSOB
as expensive, and closer study shows that the weaknesses in
on-boarding and account opening and closing are more apparent
than real. “Account management runs smoothly,” argues a client.
Though the scoring of client service is discouraging, there is
nothing wrong with the level of engagement with clients. “From
a network management perspective, we would like to confirm
the CSOB team is always ready to look into local market or
process issues we are facing and, moreover, provide solutions
to each of these,” writes a client. “Always there to assist us no
matter what the issue is.”
Citi
Citi has provided direct custody and clearing services in Brati-
slava since 2005, a year after the country joined the European
Union (EU). It collects a number of responses here, but not
enough to warrant a rating.
Raiffeisen Bank International
The Austrian bank operates in Bratislava via a direct link to the
NCNDP. Responses for a rating are, however, not available this
year.
SLOVENIA
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
Although net portfolio investment has recovered since 2014 and
the value of the main stock market index has risen steadily since
then, the Bratislava Stock Exchange (BSSE) has had a difficult
two years. The culmination was the loss at the beginning of last
year of Slovak government bond trading to the MTS platform
The Ljubljana Stock Exchange, which is now wholly owned by
the Zagreb Stock Exchange, is not large. A list of all the secu-
rities traded on the exchange has just 79 stocks on it. But their
collective value has risen – albeit unsteadily – since the country
emerged from recession in 2013.
UniCredit
UniCredit, judging by the number of responses it has received,
Spring 2019
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