GB00_erste lage_E - Erste Group

Strong, united identity
conveyed by tightly
co-ordinated marketing
By the end of 2000, two-thirds of the savings banks had already redesigned their home pages to
reflect the new unified structure. A further step in the direction of additional distribution channels
was taken in September 2000 by enabling customers to access the automated teller machines
and self-service account statement printers of 1,200 branches of the entire Austrian savings
bank sector with one card.
The securities trading platform launched in the fourth quarter, Erste-nettrading, will be available
to all savings banks this year.
As of the end of the reporting year, 12 savings banks had already outsourced their securities
back office operations to Erste Bank, and preparations with another 15 institutions were under
way. This initiative puts into practice Erste Bank’s strategy of efficiently bundling the sector’s
back office functions. In asset-liability management—another area of co-operation—26 savings
banks in Austria are currently drawing on the consulting services of Erste Bank’s Balance Sheet
Management unit.
Reduction of overlap between branch networks leads to equity participation
of Erste Bank in savings banks
In 1999 ownership of 53 branches in Upper Austria, Salzburg and Carinthia passed to the respective
regional savings banks. On 30 September 2000, in line with Erste Bank’s savings banks strategy,
this was followed by the transfer of 24 Erste Bank branches in Styria to Steiermärkische
Bank und Sparkassen AG. In return, Erste Bank received a 14% interest in the savings bank.
In the course of this transaction, Steiermärkische Bank und Sparkassen AG took over 160
employees. The total assets of the branches involved, consisting of both traditional savings bank
activities and the business with small and medium-sized corporate customers, amount to EUR
580 million.
The transfer also included all non-bank equity holdings of Erste Bank domiciled in the province
of Styria, notably tourism-related companies. As well, in December Erste Bank sold its 9%
stake in a municipal savings bank, Sparkasse der Stadt Knittelfeld AG, to Steiermärkische Bank
und Sparkassen AG.
The spin-offs of the Erste Bank branches to the savings banks of the Austrian regional capitals
are designed to reduce competition within the sector, reap synergies from the pooling of backoffice
and service functions, and the expand the joint market shares.
In the past several years Salzburger Sparkasse Bank AG, the third largest Austrian savings bank,
with total assets of EUR 3.53 billion has succeeded in demonstrating its deep entrenchment in
the region as a Salzburg institution.
The advantages of the institution’s integration into the Erste Bank Group for customers are
also being utilised. This effort will be intensified yet more now that the city of Salzburg sold its
remaining 25.6% stake to Erste Bank in December 2000. The restructuring of the distribution
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