Annual Report 2009 - ProCredit

The ProCredit Group: Responsible Banks for Small Businesses and Ordinary People 33
day business. Key to our success is therefore
the recruitment and training of dedicated staff.
We maintain a corporate culture that promotes
the professional development of our employees
while fostering a deep sense of personal and social
responsibility. This entails not only intensive
training in technical and management skills, but
also frequent staff exchanges between our member
institutions. In this way, we take full advantage
of the opportunities for staff development
that are created by the existence of a truly international
group.
A central plank in our approach to training is the
ProCredit Academy in Germany, which provides a
part-time “ProCredit Banker” training programme
over a period of three years for high-potential
staff from each of the ProCredit institutions. The
curriculum includes intensive technical training
and also exposes participants to subjects such
as anthropology, history, philosophy and ethics
in an open and multicultural learning environment.
Our goal in covering such varied topics is
to give our future managers the opportunity to
develop their knowledge and views of the world.
At the same time, we aim to improve their communication
and staff management skills. The first
ProCredit Academy participants graduated in
September 2008. The group also operates three
Regional Academies in Latin America, Africa and
Eastern Europe to support the professional development
of middle managers at the local level.
The group’s strategy for 2010 will reflect the prevailing
conditions of the countries in which we
work. We will further expand our business as the
“house bank” of choice for small and very small
enterprises, offering tailored loans and other
banking services. In our lending activities, we will
increase the minimum loan size for enterprise clients
to EUR/USD 1,000-2,000 in most countries
since we have found that below this limit there
is broad access to loans from consumer finance
providers, a situation which prevents us from
maintaining loyal client relationships and keeping
arrears levels at a sustainable level in that
particular segment. It follows that for these client
groups we would rather offer deposit accounts
and other banking services. Furthermore, we believe
that our development impact can be more
significant if we focus on issuing slightly larger
loans to businesses with the greatest capacity
for job creation. Our other priorities in the coming
year will be to focus on loan portfolio quality and
on further improving the efficiency of our banking
services.
Strong investment in our staff will also remain a
key priority since it is their skills which enable
us to build strong, broad-based relationships
with our clients, which are a particularly important
factor of success in volatile macroeconomic
conditions. As a group of responsible banks for
ordinary people with prudent policies and welltrained
staff to ensure our steady performance,
we look forward to consolidating our position as a
“house bank” for small businesses, their employees,
and the ordinary people who live and work in
the neighbourhoods around our branches.