His boss in Vienna, Karl Sevalda, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank International, has lately sent repeated signals that he intends to implement a tough austerity program in the coming years in order to boost efficiency and ease the effort of meeting the new capital requirements, i.e. pay back the EUR1.75 billion the bank owes to the Austrian state.
“I am not awaiting instructions from Vienna regarding cost cuts. We decided to relocate a part of activities from Bucharest to Brasov specifically to make operations more efficient and the decision was made a long time ago.”
The operating center in Brasov, with 600 employees, has taken over activities such as transaction processing and call center operations from the Bucharest headquarters. Around 800 jobs from the Bucharest HQ have been cut as a result.
Wages at the Brasov center are 25% lower than they were in Bucharest.
Only 6% of the 600 employees, i.e. almost 40 people, have been relocated from Bucharest, while the rest have been recruited from among Brasov undergraduates and Master’s students.
Raiffeisen has rented 3,500 sq m of office space within real estate project Coresi on the platform of the former Tractorul plant and has so far invested half a million euros.
Since the start of the crisis, the number of Raiffeisen employees has fallen by around 1,240, according to parent bank data, to 5,246 in the middle of this year.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)