Annual Report 2007

Deposits and Other Banking Services
Deposits from local customers rose by 73% (USD
33.09 million) in 2007, and this increase was sufficient
to provide 46% of the funding required
to finance the growth of the bank’s outstanding
portfolio. Fifty percent of the growth in the deposit
volume came from term deposits, which
had an average maturity period of 180 days, considerably
longer than the 90 days that was the
average for the rest of the financial system.
The increase in the number of deposit accounts
represented the most significant achievement in
this area of operations in 2007. The number of
accounts rose by 58,000 during the year, an increase
of 135%. As a result, the bank was easily
able to exceed its targets for 2007 for the number
of savings accounts.
In line with its “neighbourhood bank” philosophy,
Banco ProCredit continued to set itself apart from
other institutions within the Ecuadorian financial
system by promoting a culture of saving based on
the accessibility, security, high-quality service
and financial soundness backed by international
support which are the bank’s distinguishing features.
The bank’s positioning as a responsible
neighbourhood bank became particularly important
in the context of the change in the country’s
government, which created uncertainty among
savers, and the bank placed particular emphasis
Customer Deposits
Volume (in USD million)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Number (in ’000)
Jun Dec Jun Dec Jun Dec Jun Dec Jun Dec
03 04 05 06 07
Term Savings Sight Total number
112
98
84
70
56
42
28
14
0
Number of Customer Deposits – Breakdown by Size*
0.5%
4.4%
16.5%
0.11%
o.09%
< USD 100 USD 10,001 – USD 50,000
78.4%
USD 101 – USD 1,000 USD 50,001 – USD 100,000
USD 1,001 – USD 10,000 > USD 100,000
M a n a g e m e n t B u s i n e s s R e v i e w 1
on explaining its mission, approach to banking,
and corporate values to the public.
During the year, management’s major focus was
on creating a structure that would enable the bank
toachievesustainablegrowthbyfurtherstrengthening
the competitive advantage it derives from
providing high-quality service and expanding
its coverage of market sectors with the greatest
potential. By implementing this new structure at
the branch level, the bank provided greater support
to branch and regional managers in the management
of liabilities. This issue is discussed in
detail below in the Special Feature.
With regard to the bank’s market positioning,
management worked closely with the marketing
department to develop and implement more effective
promotional measures at the branches,
where staff participated enthusiastically in targeted
events designed to provide information
about Banco ProCredit’s financial services and
its activities to support local communities. This
approach was supported by two advertising campaigns
that aimed to make the public more aware
of the bank’s soundness and the accessibility of
its savings accounts to everyone.
To expand its outreach, the bank decided to place
greater emphasis on smaller branches, through
which it can manage its operations more efficiently
and achieve faster branch network ex-
* 31 Dec 2007