Corporates, financial institutions and sovereigns have various options to make use of capital markets and to get dept capital - issuing shares or bonds for example. As IT, we are here to provide Erste Group with tools that conduct these issuing processes (issuing, finding buyers etc.) for our clients. 

Banks provide corporates with financial services like loans, syndicated loans, project financing, supply chain financing and cash management. These are required in various scenarios like financing new buildings, investment in infrastructure etc. Projects like these are usually financed by a bank, since the owners are not able to invest that amount of money ad hoc. Due to the risk of debtors not being able to pay back the loans, banks have the option of co-financing (syndicated loan) or of issuing the money gradually, depending on the progress of the project, that is being financed (project financing).

As IT of the bank’s Corporates & Markets business, we are also responsible to handle the systems used for handling transactions on the banking and trading books of Erste Group’s entities. The systems in use are here to define prices, how fast or slow fund managers should buy and to help decisions regarding the investment portfolio. 

Hedging transactions are used as tactical instruments to reduce the risk associated with financial products and can be conducted via publicly traded derivatives, such as options and futures contracts, or via non-standardized derivatives.

So basically, the banks’ clients have to have the possibility to protect their investments from falling or rising interest rates or other fluctuations such as the ones of exchange rates. In order to hedge investments in these cases, the bank offers products like Foreign Exchange Swaps (FX Swap) or Interest Rate Swaps, for which we, the IT, provide the respective services and support related processes.

Example of use: The aircraft industry e.g. needs to calculate purchasing prices of Kerosene in advance and due to high fluctuations, such as the fluctuations of crude oil and the dollar price, hedge transactions are needed. 

CaM Steering 
In order to support the management of the Erste Group IT’s Corporates & Markets, a steering department is embedded within the IT Service Area. The main focuses lie in collecting financial planning data and estimation of financial results for upcoming periods, making sure of its quality and correct representation within Erste Group as well as in supporting the management of the Corporates and Markets IT service area in the achievement of PD rate and utilization targets. Furthermore, the department is operating as a cooperation partner / SPOC within Erste Group IT. In this regard, the department involved in a variety of topics e.g. in relation to finance, contracts, project reporting.

Cross Asset Services 
CaM’s Cross Asset Services team is accountable for the clearing, settlement, accounting and reporting of all treasury asset categories, providing services to the business at Holding, mainly including: Treasury Sales and Trading, Banking Operations, Market Risk and Accounting. The team is stabilizing and enhancing the daily processes and operations in the division. Current key focal points of the CA team include the establishment of clear and transparent mechanisms for business collaboration and efficient delivery processes.  

Erste Asset Management
Erste Asset Management (EAM) is a Group Entity that is specialized in offering a range of investment funds and asset management solutions. At Erste Group IT the EAM Division provides the asset business with high quality solutions and consultancy, ensuring the architecture and IT processes, needed for providing offerings around assets & funds. This ranges from providing the architecture and operations to running and maintaining relevant front office & middle office, funds & risk managing as well as sales and reporting solutions. 

Group Corporates
The Group Corporates Division within CaM is covering the IT side of the Erste Group’s Corporates Business such as project management, business analysis, solution management and development. The provided solutions and consultancy cover several steps along the supply chains which include areas such as Sales, Customer Relation Ship Management, Transactions and Lending. Therefore, the solutions in hand are for example building the infrastructure for transactions, conducting interest calculations and handling agreements and payment executions.

Group Markets
The GM Division provides IT expertise in order to ensure the Group’s activities on the financial markets such as Trading & Sales. Providing the IT infrastructure and ensuring systems to run, the GM Division’s team is partly located on the trading floor working closely together with business functions. The business fields include for example Agency Trading (Broking/Sales), Group Securities Trading and Proprietary Trading. Therefore, the division is taking care of developing, analyzing and implementing systems that are relevant to the market’s business processes that are being conducted in the front, mid and back offices of Erste