Asset Management Geared to Each Client’s Needs
Raiffeisen Asset Management Romania, a subsidiary of the prestigious Raiffeisen Group, offers industry-leading, integrated financial management for individual and corporate customers. The company specialises in providing a wide range of products and services which meet the individual yield options and risk tolerances of each client. Raiffeisen Asset Management is committed to supporting world-class professional standards in Romania’s investment-fund and asset-management activities. CEO Razvan Szilagyi discusses his company’s goals and products.
What is the mission of Raiffeisen Asset Management in Romania?
Razvan Szilagyi: Our mission is to help our customers reach their financial objectives, whether these are simple or complex. We serve all kinds of customers: Private-banking and Premium clients interested in protecting and increasing their wealth, retail clients looking to build financial security, and also companies. We focus on coming up with the right instruments to allow clients to fulfil their unique financial needs. Solutions we offer could be a pension fund to protect a person after retirement or a sophisticated investment fund. One of our products is the Raiffeisen Confort fund, which invests mostly in low-risk investments,has also an equity part and is flexible enough to adapt to market changes. Raiffeisen Asset Management is the number one asset-management company in Romania concerning retail non-fixed-income funds.
What gives Raiffeisen Asset Management its competitive edge here in Romania?
Razvan Szilagyi: It is team’s work that is based on the customer’s Relationship Manager. We are successful thanks to our focus on matching products with each client’s needs.We are committed to developing a clear, accurate investment-policy statement for each of our customers. We ask each customer a lot of questions about risk tolerance, anticipated returns and specific objectives before we propose products and solutions. Our goal is to always come up with choices which fit each client’s particular situation.
How is the Romanian market different from other markets?
Razvan Szilagyi: In Romania, there is great need to educate the public about retirement support. The total value of pension funds in Romania is around 3% of GDP while the total value of asset management is also 3%. These percentages are well below the EU average. Most Romanians have no retirement plan, and Raiffeisen has developed products to fill this gap. Romania’s financial-services sector is high quality and closely regulated by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), and all financial-services companies here should find ways to educate customers about the fact that they need to protect their financial health just as they protect their physical health.
