[ S U R V E Y
|
A G E N T
B A N K S
I N
E M E R G I N G
M A R K E T S ]
Czech Republic
Raiffeisen Bank International
This is an even better set of results than the Vienna-headquar-
tered, regional specialist achieved last year. “Specialities are
handled professionally,” says a client, but the average scores sug-
gest it is not just the unusual requests that receive special atten-
tion. In every service area, the scores are well ahead of the local
and global benchmarks, with only the returns in the demanding
field of minimising the costs of cash and credit evincing even a
scintilla of doubt. As in 2017, the highly visible RMs of RBI earn
their reward. “We value the service of relationship management
very much,” as a client puts it.
Československá obchodni banka
The 2017 dip in scores was evidently a blip. Respect for the peo-
ple at CSOB in Prague is exceptionally high, and 2018 also sees
a solid set of scores across the core service areas. Importantly,
asset servicing, which was an issue last year, is up significantly.
While customers of CSOB do have one thing in common with
customers of every custodian everywhere – a yearning to pay
less in fees, and receive keener pricing on cash and FX – it is
in the less quotidian and more forward-looking components of
modern securities services that clients want CSOB to invest in.
Citi
One important client is happy enough (“very good service”), but
this outcome will be less pleasing to the Citi operation in Prague
than the returns of 2017. This year, the average assessment
even of the traditional strengths of Citi as a direct custody and
clearing agent – such as client service and technology – fall short
of both the local and the global benchmarks in most service
areas. Reassuringly, the confidence of financial and institutional
clients in the bank as a counterparty and a long-term partner in
the Czech securities markets is clearly undented by the man-
agement decision of 2015 to sell the retail banking franchise to
Raiffeisen.
UniCredit
Scores have dipped for a second year in succession. They are
now at a level that leaves the bank that was once the market
leader, not just in terms of market share in Prague, but through-
out central and eastern Europe, far adrift of both the local and
the global benchmarks. Even relationship management and
client service, which imparted a degree of buoyancy to Uni-
Credit Prague in 2017, shine less brightly this year. In matters of
pricing, and all future-oriented service areas, clients are clearly
signalling a need for resurrection.
Société Générale Securities Services
The French bank, whose presence in Prague is underpinned
by its ownership of Komerční banka – one of the three largest
retail banks in the Czech Republic – has built a sizeable share of
the safekeeping market. The average scores represent a massive
improvement on its 2017 performance here, but unfortunately
SGSS did not attract quite enough responses to assess the quality
of its services with complete confidence.
WEIGHTED AVERAGE SCORES
Raiffeisen Bank
International
CSOB
Citi
UniCredit
Société Générale
Share of validated responses (%) 21% 19% 21% 29% 11%
Relationship management 6.11 6.07 4.61 4.24 n/a
Market Average Global Average
5.18 5.30
Client service 6.38 5.83 5.12 4.08 n/a 5.10 5.56
Account management 6.22 4.57 4.59 3.95 n/a 4.86 5.14
Asset safety 5.85 4.20 3.83 3.36 n/a 4.31 4.60
Risk management 6.48 5.69 4.90 4.54 n/a 5.46 5.50
Liquidity management 6.20 4.91 4.79 3.71 n/a 4.79 5.14
Regulation and compliance 5.40 5.10 4.36 4.39 n/a 4.76 4.84
Innovation 5.69 4.33 4.21 3.79 n/a 4.75 4.75
Asset servicing 6.09 6.07 5.65 4.05 n/a 5.22 5.52
Pricing 5.88 5.65 4.97 4.15 n/a 5.13 5.28
Technology 6.24 5.00 5.10 5.26 n/a 5.47 5.41
Cash management and FX 5.95 5.75 5.22 4.00 n/a 5.08 5.42
Total 6.06 5.22 4.79 4.15 n/a 5.04 5.23
66
Global Custodian
Winter 2018