July - Raiffeisen Bank International AG

July 2016
GSS Press
Group Securities Services Monthly
Croatia
In this issue
AT A GLANCE
Croatia
Hot summer in politics
2
TALKING POINT
Ivana Gažic´
CEO of Zagreb Stock Exchange
4
Damir Grbavac
CEO of Raiffeisen Pension Funds
6
BEHIND THE SCENES
8
MARKET ROUNDUP
9
DID YOU KNOW?
11
CONTACT US12
IMPRINT & DISCLAIMER 13
ATTILA‘S PHOTO BLOG
EVENTS
This document is intended for
institutional investors only.
14
Back in the black
To those who joined us at NeMa in Dubrovnik, Croatia’s attractiveness for holiday
makers could not go unnoticed. No wonder that tourism contributes nearly one fifth
to the country’s economy. Different from
other popular vacation spots that are suffering from security concerns, the number of
visitors to the coast from Istria to Dalmatia
is still growing.
The landscape of politics, though, has appeared rather rough lately, with the ruling
coalition breaking up eventually. I guess it
has a touch of irony that the Croatian overall economy has assumed a sound growth
pattern at the same time.
Many issues of this publication have reported about the emerge of SEE Link, a common platform of regional bourses whose
GSS Press | July 2016
approach is pretty similar to RBI’s Opera´ CEO of the Zation Center. Ivana Gažic,
greb Stock Exchange as one of SEE Link’s
founding members, gave GSS Press an update of the latest developments.
As far as the domestic capital market is concerned, the Croatian pension funds play a
pivotal role as market participants but also
as investors in the current privatization projects. Find out more about this close connection from our interview with Damir Grbavac,
CEO of Raiffeisen Pension Funds.
Kind regards,
Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy
Executive Director
Head of Group Securities Services
1
AT A GLANCE
CROATIA
Hot summer in politics
After the break-up of the governing
coalition, Croats will go to the polls again.
Ignoring the turmoil in politics, the Croatian
real economy has returned to a growth
pattern.
Parliamentary elections in Croatia held
last November have made the political situation in Croatia more complicated. “Domoljubna koalicija” (Patriotic coalition),
headed by HDZ, the biggest parliament
party in Croatia, gained 59 out of 151
mandates and came out winner in relative
terms. The governing party’s (SDP) coalition, won 56 mandates; so none of them
was strong enough to form a government
independently.
The third place went to MOST (Bridge),
an independent list composed mostly of
local mayors from various Croatian cities. MOST initially had intended to form
a government together with HDZ’s and
SDP’s coalition but failed to do so as the
two major parties wouldn’t agree. Finally,
in January, after long and exhausting negotiations MOST entered a partnership
with HDZ and “Domoljubna koalicija”
forming the new government. On the
proposal of HDZ, Tihomir Orešković a
Croatian-rooted Canadian independent
businessman with years of experience in
international pharmaceutical companies,
became prime minister. The two vice president posts were distributed between Tomislav Karamarko, president of HDZ, and
Božo Petrov, president of MOST.
Alas, this arrangement didn’t last for long.
6 months later, the partnership fell apart
and the parliament in a no confidence vote
sacked the prime minister (again based
on HDZ’s proposal). After that, HDZ tried
GSS Press | July 2016
to collect enough mandates to form another coalition and a new government but
failed. In consequence, Mr. Karamarko resigned from his post as president of HDZ.
As a result, we will have new elections on
11 September 2016.
Back to growth
The political situation certainly took its toll
on the Croatian financial market. When
in May the government tried to issue a
new government Eurobond and went on
a roadshow to check out the interest of
investors in Germany and UK, they realized that due to political instability in Croatia investors would demand much higher
yields than assumed by the government.
So the issue was cancelled. For now, this
is not a critical situation but considering
that next year three government bonds are
going to mature, the future government
will have to tackle this as a top priority.
The shape of the Croatian economy luckily does not follow the negative disposition of the political scene. Croatian GDP
increased by 2.7% in the first quarter of
2016, mainly due to continued growth
in the value of goods exports (9.4%) and
further recovery in private consumption.
This is the sixth consecutive quarter showing GDP growth in Croatia.
A lot is expected from tourism this year so
the positive effects on the GDP will follow
with possible growth rates between 1%
and 2%.
The former government tried to reduce public debt by initiating the privatization of
54 state-owned companies, and was trying to find a consultant which would make
an independent evaluation of the portfolios of the respective companies ahead of
their sell-off. Also, there were talks about
a swap with pension funds, by which the
government planned to swap its stake in
state-owned companies with government
bonds in pension funds’ portfolios, thus
reducing public debt. The privatization
efforts also targeted Croatian pension
funds. Beside the sale of Končar Electrical
Industry (KOEI), exclusively offered to pension funds, all other decisions have been
postponed due to political situation.
2
TALKING POINT
Capital market is developing
Last year the Croatian CSD (SKDD d.d.)
founded SKDD-CCP, which will be the central counterparty and provide contractual
settlement services. After several delays
the SKDD-CCP is scheduled to go live before the end of 2016.
The Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) bought
Ljubljana Stock Exchange in 2015 and
is trying to attract foreign investors on a
regional level. ZSE, along with the Macedonian and Bulgarian Stock Exchanges,
started the SEE link project with the aim to
create a regional infrastructure for trading
of securities listed on those three markets.
In the meantime, the project has raised a
lot of interest and more and more markets
are planning to join it (for now at least
eight markets), so that SEE Link should
have a positive impact on volumes on ZSE
and other regional markets.
On ZSE we are still witnessing small
volumes, but the performance of ZSE’s
main index CROBEX is getting better, and
by the time we are writing this article it
was +3,26%. The two best performing
indices on the Zagreb Stock Exchange
in 2016 were CROBEXindustrija surging
11.05% and CROBEXturist up 9.82% in
2016.
Although the outcome of the upcoming
elections for Croatia is uncertain, we believe that the political situation will stabilize,
creating a foundation for further economic
growth and boosting the development of
the capital market by the (inevitable) privatization of state-owned companies.
GSS Press | July 2016
3
TALKING POINT
Always on the go
The Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) is a driver of the current regional developments. CEO Ivana Gažić talks to GSS Press about
the issues that keep her busy.
´ it is evident that the ZSE is focuMs. Gažic,
sing on the region in an attempt to became
a regional leader. Can you share with us
the underlying business strategy?
Consolidation is inevitable in the stock exchange industry, be it through acquisitions
and mergers or otherwise. Last year the
Zagreb Stock Exchange went both directions: we have acquired Ljubljana Stock Exchange by taking over 100% of its shares
from the CEE Stock Exchange Group at the
very end of 2015. Since the Zagreb and
the Ljubljana Stock Exchanges share comparable development paths and financial
system frameworks, with both countries’
capital markets in similar development
stages, structures as well as potential, it is
expected that the acquisition will yield positive effects for both exchanges and both
capital markets, while bearing numerous
synergies.
SEE Link is another way of regional consolidation. The project initiated by the
Bulgarian, Macedonian and Zagreb stock
exchanges with the objective of creating a
regional infrastructure for trading of securities listed on those three markets is supported by the EBRD. The idea behind this cross
border initiative is to integrate regional
equity markets without any merger or corporate integration, using only technology
that will enable participating stock exchanges to remain independent yet complement
each other. It will allow investors an easier
and more efficient approach to those markets through a local broker.
The Zagreb Stock Exchange strongly supports this capital markets union initiative,
since Croatia has a great need to mobilize
capital, to create more investment opportunities for investors and to widen the funding
GSS Press | July 2016
possibilities at lower costs for companies.
Our future efforts will address that issue.
SEE Link is moving forward and interest is
remarkable. Can you comment on the current status?
In order to give the whole project the formal framework necessary for successful
realization, the founding stock exchanges
have established the SEE Link company in
May 2104, based in Macedona, with the
three exchanges holding an equal share.
The order routing system has become operational at the end of March this year, and
in April two SEE Link indices were introduced. SEE LinX and SEE LinXEWI are composed of the 10 most actively traded regional
companies listed on the three founding exchanges.
The project is growing rapidly in terms of
its member exchanges: besides three founding exchanges, five more stock exchanges applied for membership – Belgrade,
Ljubljana, Banja Luka, Athens and Montenegro. Other regional exchanges have
also expressed their interest and Bucharest
intends to submit an application later this
year. A total of 27 investment companies
(brokerage houses) are now eligible to
trade via SEE Link.
Can you explain in short, how this platform works in practice? Do brokers from
different countries have to sign inter-broker
agreements in order to trade on foreign
markets under the SEE Link umbrella? Are
investors able to trade all securities from
SEE Link member markets in the same manner as they would trade securities from a
local market?
SEE Link offers easy and cost-efficient access to a bigger market and a larger liqui-
dity pool: it has a combined equity market capitalization of USD 30 bn, allowing
order routing of almost 400 stocks listed
on the three founding bourses. SEE Link
represents the order routing system in the
background while brokers use the front-end
of the system to enter orders.
Brokerage houses that are SEE Link members have inter-broker agreements with
counterparts in the market that they want
to trade with. Both exchanges and brokers connect through this protocol. There is
also a gate through which brokerages can
place orders without any need to use fix to
make any investment into their brokerage
applications. Local members will enhance
their range of products and sales and we
intend to provide assistance to members
free of charge for two year grants for es-
4
TALKING POINT
tablishing their applications. Moreover, we
offer our members free access to the SEE
Link platform for at least two years and free
distribution of data on their target markets
for at least two years.
Are there any obstacles to a further expansion of the SEE Link project?
Or next goal is to increase the trading activity through SEE Link. An important step
in this respect is to speed up the process of
connecting brokers who are already SEE
Link members but have not yet signed interbroker agreements with their partners in
other countries. We are working intensively
on that and we believe in the success of
this process. The exchanges are supposed
to be the main drivers of this process, but a
big operational portion of the work has to
be done by the members.
Post-trade settlement is another challenge,
as it creates obstacles for trades to be settled
fast and at low cost. Consolidation in this
area would be the next important and major
step of SEE Link. We, as a team, are examining different options how to get there.
The Croatian capital market for its part is
stagnating, the capital gains tax has had
a negative impact on trades and volumes,
the current political situation does not help.
When will we see better days on the local
stock market?
Over the last five years the Zagreb Stock
Exchange has introduced some significant
novelties to the domestic capital markets:
market making and structured products trading have been established, a multilateral
trading facility has started operating, eight
new indices were introduced and we began issuing LEI codes. The Zagreb Stock
Exchange established an Investor Relation
Award for listed companies as well as the
Zagreb Stock Exchange Annual Awards.
With the support of the EBRD, we founded the Zagreb Stock Exchange Academy
in 2010, which has had more than 4,000
students so far.
GSS Press | July 2016
Pushing the consolidation process including the acquisition of LJSE and the start of
the SEE Link project are also parts of our efforts to strengthen the domestic capital market. However, we share some hurdles with
our regional peers such as reluctance of
governments when it comes to developing
the local capital markets. More quality
investment projects would certainly contribute to the dynamics of the capital market
and to the overall economic growth.
Do you have any information on what we
can expect in regard to privatization of
state-owned companies through the stock
exchange? There are talks about the LNG
terminal etc.
Much information has been circulating
recently, but the current unstable political
situation has slowed down the process. We
hope that things will soon stabilize and that
investment plans will get more attention.
Where do you see the Croatian market in
the next few years?
Throughout all these years of crisis, the
Zagreb Stock Exchange has not only kept
the pace but, to a large extent, created
capital market trends in the region, and
is continuously working on raising awareness among market participants about
the importance of a liquid and transparent
stock market to the overall economy. In the
future, we will put more stress on strengthening the capabilities of our region’s SMEs
to finance their business development with
the help of the capital markets.
If the importance of the capital market in
Croatia was recognized in a broader context, not only among market participants, it
would provide an opportunity to show its
true purpose, that is to be a generator of
growth and economic development of the
country. When that time has come, which
hopefully will be soon, we will be ready.
5
TALKING POINT
Resting on three pillars
Damir Grbavac, CEO of Raiffeisen Pension Funds in Croatia, talks to GSS Press about market conditions and business prospects.
Mr. Grbavac, could you briefly describe the
pension system?
The pension system in Croatia has gone
through significant changes since the end
of the last century. The reforms started with
changes in the first pillar by extending the
working age, discouraging early retirement.
But the most important novelty was to introduce pension pillars based on individually
capitalized accounts in pension funds managed by specialized private entities.
Today we have a 3-pillar system. Three
quarters of mandatory pension contributions go to the basic pay as you go. In
addition to that, we have mandatory pension funds as a second pillar, receiving the
remaining quarter, and voluntary pension
funds funded by members and additional
employers’ contributions on voluntary basis
with the aim of providing supplementary
pensions.
At the very beginning, this system was
supposed to be even more ambitious with
regard to developing a second pillar, but
for various social and political reasons, not
everything has materialized as planned. I
would like to emphasize that all calculations show that 1 kuna (HRK) paid into second pillar brings a much higher pension
effect than the same amount allocated to
the public pension system.
In the mandatory second pillar, life cycle
portfolios were set up in 2014.
The average annual yield since the launch
of the RMPF obligatory fund is 5.75% despite the situation on the capital market and
a weak Croatian economy. What is behind
your successful performance?
We have managed to achieve our performance in a low inflation environment, so
GSS Press | July 2016
our long term real return of our mandatory pension fund (the only one till 2014)
has been 3.7 %. This is much better than
expected at the beginning of the pension
reform. There is no secret about it; we are
managing our portfolio according to best
industry standards and with a rather conservative investment policy. Following our
asset allocation, the major contributors to
the returns are Croatian government bonds
and foreign equities.
Can you briefly explain the basic investment limits for pension fund? What drives
RMPF’s investment decisions?
We had rather strict quantitative limits at
the start, but they have been liberalized
with the latest changes in legislation. In the
mandatory second pillar the limits depend
on the fund’s risk category, having in mind
that each pension fund managing company is obliged to offer its members a choice
of three funds with different risk profiles.
In that sense, the riskiest fund category
can accumulate up to 55% of its assets in
equities and minimum 40% in domestically
issued instruments. The medium risk type
holds up to 35% in equities and minimum
60 % in domestic issues, while the most
conservative fund would go without equities and allocate to 90% domestic securities instead. In our present portfolio structure
category B is by far the largest one, with a
large portion of domestic fixed income. It
is a result of the previous quantitative limits
as well as the limited offer on the domestic
market. But we are investing internationally
as well, first of all in equities, having in
mind the low interest rate environment in
Europe, and we’ll continue to do so in the
future. At the same time, we continue to
look for favorable domestic opportunities.
Beside the first two pillars you have just described, there is a third pillar, based on voluntary pension savings. What is the future
of such savings in Croatia?
6
TALKING POINT
Raiffeisen Group was the first to launch
a voluntary pension fund in Croatia and
since then, we have invested a lot of efforts
in developing this business line. We are the
No. 2 on the market in that segment, but
here it is not about defeating the competition, but to capture the large part of the
uncovered market, considering that today
one out of 6.5 second pillar members are
utilizing the third pillar. So, the present
relative weakness of this business can be
treated as a chance to grow.
The development of dedicated pension
savings will, to a great extent, depend
on improving the financial literacy of our
population and on creating awareness for
the necessity of additional savings for retirement. The living standard and the the
overall prospects for Croatian citizens are
playing a role as well, considering there is
a large part of the population who have no
possibility to save at all.
Some countries have nationalized their
pension system and similar proposals circulate in Croatia. Are such debates harming your business?
They may create some confusion in the
public including our members, but they
haven’t jeopardized the business itself
so far. The reform of the pension system
was one of not many successful reforms in
Croatia and people are starting to see the
balances on their pension fund accounts
as their personally earned property which
they wouldn’t like to lose. Countries which
have undergone such an exercise had a
short-term budgetary effect in mind, while
risking long-term negative consequences.
We are witnessing the privatization of companies offered primarily to pension funds,
ˇ
for example Koncar
electrical industry
(KOEI), in which ROMF has participated, or
the privatization of Croatian Motorways.
Are there more projects of this kind in the
pipeline?
We do examine such opportunities according to our investment criteria and in the
best interest of our members and portfolios.
At the end, our participation in the Končar
privatization was almost symbolic. We
also looked into the monetization of Croatian Motorways, so far without making any
final commitments as we are still waiting
for a number of open issues to be clarified.
In my opinion, however, the Government’s
decision to withdraw the project was not
good, first of all for the country and its public debt. Moreover, it might have been a
good opportunity for pension funds. Yes,
we shall look at all such opportunities and
evaluate them, but this does not mean that
we’ll participate in each of them.
About RMF
Raiffeisen Mandatory and Voluntary Pension Funds Management Company Plc.
(short: Raiffeisen Pension Funds or RMF) has been operating in Croatia since
14 years. RMF manages one obligatory and seven voluntary pension funds.
The market share exceeds 30%.
GSS Press | July 2016
7
BEHIND THE SCENES
NeMa the business node
This year’s Network Management Forum,
NeMa, took place in Dubrovnik for the
third time since the beginning of its 16 years old history. Core industry leaders and
supporters, representing brokers, global
custodians, agent banks, regulators, exchanges, CCPs, CSDs and technology providers gathered in an informal scenery in
this picturesque town on the Mediterranean
Sea, to discuss the present and future challenges and goals of the securities services.
Raiffeisen Bank International was proud to
support this event.
Pictures: NeMa 2016 https://finance.knect365.com/
GSS Press | July 2016
8
MARKET ROUNDUP
Maria Lazova,
Head of GSS Bulgaria
BULGARIA
National Corporate Governance Code at OECD standards
The National Corporate Governance Committee published
amendments to the National Corporate Governance Code. They
follow the Principles of corporate governance of the OECD set
out in the OECD Report to Finance Ministers and Central Bank
Governors in September 2015.
•
•
•
•
•
The changes are related to:
• avoiding conflicts of interest between corporate management
and the company;
improving transparency by adopting rules on the disclosure of periodic and ad-hoc
information;
expanding the scope of the Code so as to include the activities of companies that keep
and manage portfolios of and on behalf of clients (institutional investors, trustees, custodians);
improving protection of shareholders' rights in public companies by institutional investors, trustees and custodians;
shareholders rights protection in international cross-listing;
extending the scope of the Code to include regulated markets, where a company is
traded on more than one such market and to provide relevant market information to
shareholders.
BNB presents its future projects
On the occasion of the Innovations Financial Forum held in Sofia in June, the Deputy
Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) outlined the recent and short-term projects related to the listing of government securities on the regulated market, on the development of payments services, and on regulations in the financial sector.
Below are the key projects presented in the speech:
• Admission of domestic government securities to the regulated market, specifically on the
Bulgarian Stock Exchange-Sofia (BSE-Sofia) and on Bloomberg’s E-Bond application.
This measure is expected to be implemented by the end of 2017. It will allow financial
institutions to choose where to trade government debt, namely on the BSE-Sofia, Bloomberg or OTC. In this way, Bulgaria aims to meet the requirements of EU Regulation
2015/61 concerning liquidity coverage requirement for credit institutions.
• It will become mandatory to use the SEPA format with ISO 20022 XML standard for
all credit transfers and direct debits in EUR and the use of BIC codes will no longer be
required for these transactions. The deadline for implementation is 31 October 2016.
• In light of forthcoming changes to the Foreign Exchange Law and BNB Regulation 27 on
the balance of payment statistics, BNB plans to remove the requirement for payment service providers to report transactions and payments between residents and non-resident
entities, as well as cross-border transfers of over BGN 100,000 by the end of July 2016.
GSS Press | July 2016
Spotlight news
BG: Ruling on offshore ownership
in financial institutions
The Bulgarian Parliament adopted
a decision according to which offshore companies can own up to
10% of the capital of banks, insurance and pension companies and
collective investment undertakings.
The amendments were incorporated
in the Law on Companies Registered in Jurisdictions with Preferential
Tax Regime. The new text introduces
the requirement to disclose the actual owners of an offshore company
when it directly or indirectly participates in the capital of a bank, insurance company or pension fund.
The changes become effective as of
July.
BG: EXTRI upgrade
The Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE)
announced that its enhanced IT
platform EXTRI will be used by local
banks to disclose information to BSE
related activities performed in their
capacity as trustee bank of bondholders.
The new service of BSE’s EXTRI platform is aiming to improve the infrastructure of the Bulgarian Capital
Market, by making it more secure
and environmentally friendly.
Trustee banks have to officially register their authorized representatives
by user name and universal electronic signature. The registration needs
to be accompanied by a power of
attorney document for representing
the bank before BSE, and by a list of
issues for which the bank is acting
as a trustee of bondholders.
9
MARKET ROUNDUP
Anna Lewczuk
Sales & Relationship Manager, GSS Poland
POLAND
Working towards meeting CSDR requirements
The KDPW Group, the owner of the Polish Central Securities Depositary (KDPW), a Central Counterparty (KDPW_CCP) and a
transactions repository (KDPW_TR), has recently issued an update
on the progress of their CSDR project and the necessary system
adjustments that have to be implemented by both the CSD and its
participants.
The upcoming system changes are designed to meet the requirements stipulated by the European CSD Regulation. A large part
of the project relates to the rules around the settlement discipline
(art. 6 and 7 of CSDR), in particular affecting the buy-in procedures, the late settlement
fees, securities valuation and monitoring of timely settlement. However, other changes in
connection with, among others, instructions matching, hold and release mechanism, partial
settlement, tolerance levels, usage of Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) codes, settlement instruction
recycling, and maintenance of the NKK (client classification numbers for the derivatives
market) database by the CCP only will take place too.
KDPW has announced two implementation waves of the system changes:
1. The first implementation wave, scheduled for the spring 2017 window, as described in
KDPW’s most recent announcement, will include:
a. Adjustments in processing of conditional repo and sell/buy-back operations, where two
separate instructions for position opening and closing will be required from KDPW’s
participant, as opposed to KDPW generating the position closing instruction based on
the opening instruction*;
b. Changes around instruction matching where more types of operations requiring matching have been added in KDPW’s rules (e.g. position transfers)*;
c. Changes to kdpw_stream’s xml communications structure, amending messages concerning the following:
• Implementation of a new “place of clearing” field in settlement instructions (where its
completion will be obligatory from 2018);
• Introduction of a possibility to express the volume of fixed income securities in face/nominal value terms, as opposed to a number of units (subject to issuer’s terms);
• Extension of the fields for determination of the number of securities and their value;
• Change to the rules around repo transactions servicing (removal of the requirement to
indicate the type of a repo transaction);
• Introduction of a new version of communications for opening up new settlement accounts.
2. The second implementation wave, scheduled for 2018, is expected to include the other
necessary system changes. More details will be released at a later stage.
Spotlight news
RO: Stock exchange merger talks
Subsequent to the approval from
shareholders meeting of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) held in
April, negotiations with the Sibiu
Stock Exchange (Sibex) over a potential merger commenced.
The BSE Board of Directors was
mandated to prepare a merger by
absorption between the BSE, as absorbing entity, and Sibex as the absorbed company. In the meantime,
the two exchanges announced the
conclusion of a coordination agreement, allowing the implementation
of critical elements for the merger
process.
According to the BSE, experts of
the two involved companies established the principles and conditions
for the collaboration, including cost
distribution and an action plan. The
schedule to be followed by the two
exchanges builds the fundamentals
of a potential merger.
Ludwik Sobolewski, BSE’s CEO,
stated that the absorption of Sibex
may lead to an enhanced market
infrastructure, to the benefit of BSE’s
stakeholders. Sibex CEO Ovidiu Petru expressed his confidence that the
project will meet the expectations of
both shareholders and market participants for a consolidated and stronger exchange.
* changes described in points a) and b) will not apply to transactions and other operations carried out between
banks and the National Bank of Poland.
Our view
The developments are aimed at aligning KDPW’s processes with the CSDR’s requirements
which, in turn, have been adopted in order to harmonize the services and streamline the
settlement processes of Central Securities Depositories across Europe.
GSS Press | July 2016
10
DID YOU KNOW?
How sophisticated is your
knowledge of Croatia?
GSS Press challenges its readers over a few important topics.
1. Which of the following inventions and discoveries are Croatian?
a) Parachute
b) Tie (German: Krawatte, French: cravate)
c) Torpedo
d) Alternating current
e) Pen
2. How many sunny hours per year does Hvar island count, on average?
a) 3,053
b) 2,726
c) 2,052
3. What is the shortest river in the world?
a) Roe River, USA
b) Azuis River, Brazil
c) Tamborasi River, Indonesia
d) Ombla River, Croatia
4. Which of the following locations has not served as set for Game of Thrones?
a) Dubrovnik, Croatia
b) Cordoba, Spain
c) Hardangervidda National Park, Norway
d) Marrakech, Morocco
5. How many islands belong to Croatia?
a) 246
b) 546
c) 846
d) 1246
GSS Press | July 2016
Answers:
1. a-e
All of them are attributable to Croats.
2. b
Island Hvar carries the flattery title of
the sunniest Croatian island with 2,726
sunny hours per year on average. In
2003 the maximum was reached with
3,053 hours. The European average,
in comparison, is approx. 2,100 hours
of sunshine.
3. d
Ombla's course is approximately 30 m
long, and it empties into the Rijeka
Dubrovačka embayment of the Adriatic
Sea. Until recently it was incorrectly
believed that Roe River in the state of
Montana, whose length is 30 to 60 m
depending on the season, was the
shortest river in the world.
4. c
The shooting of the Night’s Watch
expedition to the frozen lands beyond
the Wall, took place at national parks
in Iceland, to film on glaciers.
5. d
Croatia has 1,246 islands, but only
50 of them are inhabited.
11
CONTACT US
GSS Central Team
Raiffeisen Bank International AG
Am Stadtpark 9
1030 Vienna, Austria
www.rbinternational.com
Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy
Head of GSS
attila.szalay-berzeviczy@rbinternational.com
Phone: +43 1 71707-8252
Jürgen Sattler
Head of GSS Regional Management
juergen.sattler@rbinternational.com
Phone: +43 1 71707-1882
Bettina Janoschek
Head of GSS Sales & Relationship Management
bettina.janoschek@rbinternational.com
Phone: +43 1 71707-1820
Austria
Raiffeisen Bank International AG
Am Stadtpark 9
1030 Vienna, Austria
Anita Fröch
Head of GSS Austria
anita.froech@rbinternational.com
Phone: +43 1 71707-3040
www.rbinternational.com
Albania
Raiffeisen Bank Sh.a.
“European Trade Center”
Bulevardi “Bajram Curri” Tirana
Mirela Borici
Head of GSS Albania
mirela.borici@raiffeisen.al
Phone: +355 4 2381000-1074
www.raiffeisen.al
Belarus
Priorbank JSC
31-A, V. Khoruzhey Str.
220002 Minsk
Yury Dorofey
Head of GSS Belarus
yury.dorofey@priorbank.by
Phone: +375 17 2899102
www.priorbank.by
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Raiffeisen BANK d.d.
Bosna i Hercegovina
Zmaja od Bosne bb
71000 Sarajevo
Draženko Bobaš
Head of GSS Bosnia
drazenko.bobas@rbb-sarajevo.raiffeisen.at
Phone: +387 33 287-153
www.raiffeisenbank.ba
GSS Press | July 2016
Bulgaria
Russia
Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD
55, Nicola Vaptzarov Blvd., Business Center
Expo 2000, 1407 Sofia
Maria Lazova
Head of GSS Bulgaria
maria.lazova@raiffeisen.bg
Phone: +359 2 91985-463
www.rbb.bg
AO Raiffeisenbank
Smolenskaya-Sennaya Sq. 28
119020 Moscow
Evgenia Klimova
Head of GSS Russia
evgenia.klimova@raiffeisen.ru
Phone: +7-495-721 9900
www.raiffeisen.ru
Croatia
Serbia
Raiffeisenbank Austria d.d.
Petrinjska 59
10000 Zagreb
Mensur Hodžic´
Head of GSS Croatia
mensur.hodzic@rba.hr
Phone: +385 1 6174-327
www.rba.hr
Raiffeisen banka a.d.
Djordja Stanojevica 16
11070 Novi Beograd
Ivana Novakovic´
Head of GSS Serbia
ivana.novakovic@raiffeisenbank.rs
Phone: +381 11 2207572
www.raiffeisenbank.rs
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Head of GSS Czech Republic
vit.cermak@rb.cz
Phone: +420 234 40-1481
www.rb.cz
Tatra banka, a.s.
Hodžovo námestie 3
81106 Bratislava
Peter Uhrin
Head of GSS Slovakia
peter_uhrin@tatrabanka.sk
Phone: +421-2-5919 2134
www.tatrabanka.sk
Hungary
Ukraine
Raiffeisenbank a.s.
Hvezdova 1716/2b
14078 Prague 4
ˇ
Vit Cermák
Raiffeisen Bank Zrt.
Akadémia utca 6
1054 Budapest
Zsuzsanna Haraszti
Head of GSS Hungary
zsuzsa.haraszti@raiffeisen.hu
Phone: +361 484 4362
www.raiffeisen.hu
Raiffeisen Bank Aval JSC
9, Leskova Str.
01011 Kiev
ˇˇ
Bogdana Yefremova
Head of GSS Ukraine
Bogdana.Yefremova@aval.ua
Phone: +380 44 49879 32
www.aval.ua
Poland
Raiffeisen Bank Polska S.A.
(Raiffeisen Polbank)
Piękna 20 Str.
00-549 Warsaw
Radek Ignatowicz
Head of GSS Poland
radoslaw.ignatowicz@raiffeisen.pl
Phone: +48 22 585-2000
www.raiffeisen.pl
Romania
Raiffeisen Bank S.A.
246C Calea Floreasca
014476 Bucharest 1
Andrei Mezdrea
Head of GSS Romania
andrei.mezdrea@raiffeisen.ro
Phone: +40 21 30612-89
www.raiffeisen.ro
12
IMPRINT & DISCLAIMER
Imprint
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Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Registered Office: Am Stadtpark 9, 1030 Vienna. Postal address: 1010 Vienna, POB 50
Phone: +43-1-71707-0, Fax: + 43-1-71707-1715
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As a credit institution pursuant to § 1 of the Austrian Banking Act, Raiffeisen Bank International AG is subject to supervision by the Financial Market Authority and the
Austrian Central Bank. Further, Raiffeisen Bank International AG is subject to legal regulations (as amended from time to time), in particular the Austrian Banking Act
(Bankwesengesetz) and the Securities Supervision Act (Wertpapieraufsichtsgesetz).
Membership: Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Federal Bank and Insurance Sector, Raiffeisen Association
2) Statement pursuant to the Austrian Media Act
Publisher of GSS Press: Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Am Stadtpark 9, A-1030 Vienna
Media Owner of GSS Press: Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung, Am Stadtpark 9, 1030 Wien
Producer: Marketing, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Am Stadtpark 9, A-1030 Vienna
Editors: Jürgen Sattler, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Am Stadtpark 9, A-1030 Vienna
Society Commitee Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung:
Dr. Leodegar PRUSCHAK (Chairman), Petra WALTER (Deputy Chairman), Stephan MARENT (Deputy Chairman)
Other committee members Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung:
Mag. Rainer SCHNABL, Franz POSPISCHIL, Bernd NÖHRER, Mag. Maximilian EDER, Mag. Gertraud FRANK, Mag. Martin KOFLER, Markus FRIEDRICH,
Katharina STÖGNER, Mag. Clemens GANTAR
Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung is a registered society. Society purpose and activities of Zentrale Raiffeisenwerbung are (inter alia) a joint communication work
(advertising and public relations).
Basic tendency of the content of GSS Press:
GSS Press presents services and products of the Group Securities Services unit of Raiffeisen Bank International AG and its subsidiaries. Aiming at a professional
audience, GSS Press reports about developments in the financial markets, with a particular focus on post-trade infrastructure. The publication is available free of charge.
Images: Photographs and illustrations provided by Raiffeisen Bank International, Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy and the organizations featured in this issue.
Disclaimer
This document has been published by Raiffeisen Bank International AG. This document is for information purposes and may not be reproduced or distributed to other persons.
This document shall not be considered as financial, investment, legal or tax advice. This document constitutes neither a solicitation of an offer nor a prospectus in the sense
of the Austrian Capital Market Act (KMG) or the Stock Exchange Act or any other comparable foreign law. An investment decision in respect of a security, financial product
or investment must be made on the basis of an approved, published prospectus or the complete documentation for the security, financial product or investment in question,
and not on the basis of this document. This document does not constitute a personal recommendation to buy or sell financial instruments in the sense of the Austrian Securities
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This document is not a substitute for legal or tax advice or the necessary advice on the purchase or sale of a security, investment or other financial product. In respect of the sale
or purchase of securities, investments or financial products, your banking advisor can provide individualised advice which is suitable for investments and financial products.
This analysis is fundamentally based on generally available information and not on confidential information which the party preparing the document has obtained exclusively
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This document is intended for institutional investors only. Neither this document nor any part of its content may be relied upon by any other person. This document is not
intended for retail/private investors. Requests resulting from this document will only be responded to, if the respective person is an institutional investor.
GSS Press | July 2016
13
ATTILA‘S PHOTO BLOG
PHOTO OF THE MONTH
by Attila Szalay-Berzeviczy
1 July 2016 Contalmaison/ France
Commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
It became the worst day in the history of the British Army which has lost 19.000 soldiers in the first 12 hours of the offensive.
GSS Press | July 2016
14