Christian Geberth
You often talk about the bridging function that RBI or Group Prime Services stands for. What do you mean by that?
Christian Geberth: Group Prime Services provides broker-to-custody solutions for clients investing in various asset classes on a global basis. As such, we are ideally placed to act as a bridge between different regions, specifically between East and West and vice versa. We are the infrastructure for Austrian and Eastern European investors to invest in global asset classes and likewise for international investors to invest in specific Eastern European assets.
Our USP is our specific knowledge of the related local environment in Eastern Europe, our direct connectivity to local market infrastructure and our excellent relationships with the international investment world.
What exactly characterises GPS and what specific solutions and innovations do you offer your customers?
CG: Our deep understanding of local specifics in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) sets us apart; we have helped build these markets and understand the needs of local clients. We also maintain excellent connectivity with major institutional players and local infrastructure, creating sustainable business and macroeconomic value.
Although not the largest global player in asset services, we ensure efficiency and modernisation with our innovative e2e model, implemented three years ago. This framework unites business, operations, and IT in an agile tribe. We’ve achieved double-digit efficiency gains, reduced operational risk, and modernised our platform, significantly improving customer satisfaction and acquiring new mandates through our team’s combined expertise.
What is the value chain from brokerage to custody at GPS and what are the advantages of integrating brokerage and custody at RBI?
CG: Our Brokerage 2 Custody platform serves as a modern and efficient gateway to the investment product universe. In practice, this means a one-stop-shop concept starting from execution to safekeeping services – with a fully-fledged asset servicing offer (including comprehensive tax services), which – depending on the client type and needs – can also include the full range of depository bank and fund administration services.
Our GPS experts provide our customers with a profound understanding of their needs, in-depth market and process knowledge and services that span the entire value chain. This allows our clients to focus on their core competencies and needs in selecting appropriate investment opportunities. We take care of the rest.
How do you see custody as a gateway to fixed income investments and the broker-to-custody model?
Elitza Kavrakova
Elitza Kavrakova: Custody offers an excellent opportunity from a coverage perspective to think about and offer a product bundle, e.g. making it easier for clients and meeting their needs out of one hand – with the ability to buy securities through our capital markets desk and use the broker-to-custody service; one service provider offering excellency alongside the entire value chain.
What is the role of ESG in the CEE market and how is it addressed by GPS?
EK: The CEE market is very diverse in terms of ESG, depending on which region or country we look at and the size of the financial player. Institutional clients in EU countries in CEE are more advanced in their approach to sustainability than others, but the awareness of the topic and the need to act is growing.
As a leading bank in ESG in our core markets, of CEE we understand well the different needs of our clients, depending on where they are in their own ESG journey – we see the so-called newcomers, we know the transitioners and we observe financial players that I can classify as advanced in the topic.
Depending on this positioning, we are able to support our clients in their own ESG growth and transition with different types of services – from regulatory and ESG consultancy, via fixed income & ESG research and ESG scoring database for portfolio analysis, to green trade finance and green / sustainable wholesale funding in the debt capital markets.
Where have you seen an increased interest in the GPS offering from CEE countries recently? How does GPS collaborate with Ukrainian financial institutions, and what are the key benefits for Ukrainian and international clients of your custodial services?
EK: Interest in GPS products is growing with local capital market development, particularly in Southeastern Europe (SEE), the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Our direct links to local central securities depositories (CSDs) are appreciated by Western investors looking to invest in new growth markets.
In this context, I would like to highlight Ukraine. We service a large part of the local banking sector from our subsidiary in Kyiv and from Vienna. All state-owned and large private banks are our valued partners, and we help them maintain strategic imports into the country with our trade finance and cash management services, in the area of capital markets, and also with our GPS products. We were able to support our Ukrainian customers with the latter in particular last year, and I am very pleased about that.
Furthermore, we contribute substantially to maintaining the local market infrastructure throughout the war and are ready to support international investments into the market. These will be crucial to rebuild the country – hopefully in the very near future.
What are GPS’s long-term strategies to ensure the sustainability and efficiency of its securities services?
CG: Our strategy is based on four pillars. Investing in product excellence, continuously optimising our operations and processes, modernising our technology platform and fostering modern collaboration through our agile e2e tribe. Ultimately, our goal is to offer superior client experience as an efficient and modern gateway for our existing and new clients.
How do you see the future development of the CEE financial sector, and what role does GPS play in this?
EK: I share the view of our Raiffeisen Research, which maintains a constructive view of Central Europe (CE) and SEE as an integral part of the European banking market. I see a potential for local banks to grow and for foreign banks to help recalibrate global value chains, especially as CE/SEE countries attract international investors. Geopolitical shifts are prompting Western banks to favor stable EU markets.
CG: By acting as a gateway between East and West, supporting the investment product needs of different client segments ranging from institutional, corporate, and retail clients, GPS plays a significant role in supporting the further development of the finance universe in the region. I truly believe that banks play an important role in the macro-economic development of our society and our product and service catalogue is an essential part of the financial infrastructure.
Both Elitza and Christian will be available to discuss these insights and more at this year’s SIBOS conference at the RBI booth.