Q What are the benefits of early compliance with CSR?
A CSR is about moving beyond compliance in the traditional sense. The benefits for companies are two-fold. First, for risk management purposes. CSR issues, if tackled early, can provide the company with potential and real costs savings as it can use the CSR lens to see potential problems that, while distant, could soon become significant. Tackling a problem early is usually cheaper, although sometimes the problem can be the company’s principal business model (products, sales methods), which can be more complicated to work on.

Q What are the benefits of early compliance with CSR?
A A company that looks carefully at its corporate governance, environmental and health and safety performance, and treatment of its workers can achieve operational efficiencies and marketing advantages, and enhance its competitive position. A company that is alert to these issues and actively manages them is also more likely to take a proactive approach to other evolving areas of business risk and benefit.

Q What are the benefits of early compliance with CSR?
A At ABN AMRO we believe that the best way to create value for our clients is to operate with integrity and in a responsible manner. In line with our business principles, we are integrating sustainability in our business processes, first and foremost in our key role of allocating capital to ensure we engage in a responsible manner, mitigate financial and reputational risks and create a setting for business opportunities.

Q What are the benefits of early compliance with CSR?
A CSR is not an option. Companies should not be weighing up the pros and cons of ensuring that their core business practices are environmentally and socially responsible. However, the sooner a company begins to recognise the imperative of assessing the impact of its operations on the environment and on people and, consequently, addressing them in a serious and integrated manner, the better chance it has of moving away from a “fire-fighting” mode into a “fire-prevention” mode.

Corporate social responsibility has gone from being an optional extra for companies to a requirement. Now, many are realising the long-term benefits of exceeding compliance and actively engaging in ethical “best practice”.

International investors, desperate for yield, have been tapping the Romanian stock market for opportunities. Matei Paun reports on the resulting wave of liquidity.

Government initiatives and investor interest are driving a boom in Croatian capital markets.

The search for capital by Russian firms has boosted the country’s IPO levels. Ben Aris considers recent issues and the likely progress of the market.

M&A activity, the impact of Basel II, access to Tier 1 capital and investment instruments are all concerns that affect financial institutions group business. The Banker’s round table discussion looks at these and other topics that will be high profile this year.

vice-president, director of Hispanic markets, Citigroup
A quick glance at Rebeca Vargas’s curriculum vitae makes it is easy to see why she is a banker to watch. The self-effacing 33-year-old – one of Citigroup’s youngest high-level executives – holds degrees from good US and Mexican universities and boasts years of banking experience in both countries. At Citigroup, she is the director of Hispanic markets – no small job considering that she oversees strategies to capture the increasingly competitive US Hispanic market.