The FINANCIAL — “My ambition is to lead a successful development for Bank Republic and to share best practices with my Georgian colleagues,” Christian Carmagnolle, newly appointed CEO of Bank Republic, Societe Generale Group told in interview with The FINANCIAL.
Christian Carmagnolle who was born in Marseille joined Societe Generale Group in 1972.
“My very first career step in SG was undertaken in 1972, always in business positions and responsibilities, mainly in corporate segment, being promoted in 2005 as Deputy Executive Director in SG affiliated Komercni Banka in Czech Republic,” told Carmagnolle.
“I am very much interested in the Georgian nature, culture, hospitality, and I feel very positive joining BR. I know that Georgia has very ancient roots and interesting history and I am keen to know more, visit the historic places and feel the tradition of the country”.
“Bank Republic and Komercni Banka are two “Universal commercial banks” well positioned in their respective market. For sure, their size is not comparable, their products are not the same, their price lists are different but their strategies are exactly the same, in line with global Societe Generale 2015 Ambitions project “be the most desired bank in their market”.
It perfectly illustrates what is Bank Republic strategy: to be the reference bank, the bank the clients appreciate the most. In concrete terms, we will adapt our organization, our products, our processes to be more efficient and to provide our clients the best service level and the more innovative products of the market. It’s ambitious but realistic. It will take time, that’s why we already started.
During the first semester, we plan to launch a new offer. We permanently improve our organization and we will soon make sound changes to dedicate relationship managers to selected clients. I should illustrate further on all the improvements we plan but I prefer our clients discover them step by step!
Furthermore, I actively managed such achievements during the 5 years I spent in Komercni Banka and my personal expectation is to help my Georgian colleagues to be as successful as their Czech counterpart.
Q. How would you evaluate development of banking sector in Georgia?
A. The banking and financial systems in Georgia are already developed, and well regulated by the National Bank of Georgia who cares about the solidity of the banking system. The crisis was a “real stress test” and the banks demonstrated their resilience.
As usual, the Georgian banks will converge to the Western, more advance model, following the development of the country itself. I am not able to say how long it will take but I am sure the banks and Bank Republic in particular, will do their best to upgrade their service level and fit with their clients expectations.
In coming period, the banking system will rapidly develop and reach the more refined and efficient goals, will be characterized with more diverse scope and wider range of the comfortable solutions for the customers.
Q. In your opinion, after the post war and post crisis period, what should be done from bank side in order to raise the society’s activity towards using banking products?
A. The banks should improve the products and service quality and attractiveness to be ‘desirable’ and provide real added value to the clients.
Q. In your opinion, what are the high prices on loans governed by? What is your vision about price decrease at Bank Republic in 2011?
A. Generally the interest rate are determined based on the parameters including cost of funding, cost of risk and cost of liquidity, to cover costs of distribution and generate dividend to the shareholders. Such dimensions are of course specific in each and every country. Thus the interest rates for the credits are really dependent and fluctuating according to them.
Q. What will be the main marketing directions for Bank Republic in 2011? Which products will be offered more in 2011?
A. BR will develop its business activities in both directions for individuals and corporate as well. Our strategy is to be closer to customers thus ensuring the best products with high quality of service under the wide range of the choice that will most properly fit the customer demands.
Q. Has the bank changed its dependence towards corporate clients or not? Has the business crediting politics changed or not? What demands should business nowadays satisfy in order to get the loan in low percent from BR?
A. As for Corporate clients, since the creation of BR, the total business was corporate oriented, which was well developed since the entry of SG, after which BR strategy added the development of retail segment thus ensuring universal banking solutions. Corporate portfolios developments remain one of the main pillars of our commercial strategy.
We are not developing a ‘segregate” selection of projects, except the one which are not compliance with our CSR policy. We are assessing the quality of each financing request and we are using SG’s relevant guidelines regarding some specific financing, like Real Estate development projects.
Q. In Georgia, most of the leading banks represent quite large foreign organizations, including HSBC, ProCredit Bank, EBRD, IFC, Societe Generale. What kind of depositing politics are spread in other countries? How risks and interest rates differ from each other?
A. Each bank manages the sourcing pool either by the deposits generated or external sourcing. BR, as the SG subsidiary, benefits from such position and receives significant clients’ deposits and the funding from the large financial Group as well as other IFIs.
Our both international and local bank positioning sound good for many clients who perfectly understand the exclusive benefits Bank Republic can provide them. Our rating is one of the strongest. All the banks applicable in Georgia are more or less involved in such process but their individual situation is quite different.
Q. Did you know personally Mr. Gilbert Hie before? Did you get some advises from him?
A. Of course I know Mr. Hie; we participated together within the seminars and workshops organized within the Group. In BR, we worked for two weeks together, and he shared all the knowledge he has within and about BR. It was the real team work dedicated to advancement of the bank position and its welfare.
Discussion about this post