Raffeisen Bank Bosnia Hercegovina
Virtually unknown just three years ago, Raffeisen Bank Bosnia Hercegovina (RBBH) has become a financial powerhouse in Bosnia & Herzegovina and therefore has won the award again this year.
RBBH, the largest bank in the country with E475m in assets, had another stellar performance in 2002, more than doubling net profit to E7.5m and improving its return by almost 14 percentage points to 35.2%. It cost-to-income ratio, considered to be a good gauge of bank efficiency, stood at a low 56.7%.
Beyond generating a handsome profit for its parent, RZB of Austria, RBBH also successfully completed the complex integration of banks in Sarajevo and Mostar. This enabled it to greatly expand its retail branch network in Bosnia & Herzegovina and, hence, its share of total domestic deposits (E552m).
Meanwhile, the bank has further improved the security and efficiency of its two-year-old internet banking service. It also became the first bank in the country to replace obsolete magnetic stripe cards with chipcards. Once the changeover is complete, the new cards will provide RBBH customers with a wider array of banking services.
