Raiffeisen Bank International Increases Contract Output by 60%, Improving Regulatory Compliance
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is an Austrian banking group and a central institution of the Raiffeisen Banking Group Austria (RBG). With a presence in over 24 countries, five of which are EU members, it operates subsidiary banks.
Overview
Raiffeisen Bank International is one of the leading banks in Central and Eastern Europe. Its operational footprint spans several countries inside and outside the EU, including network banks and close to 50 non-banking regional entities. It offers corporate, retail, investment banking services, premium, and private banking services in select countries.
Challenge
RBI’s central procurement system is a complex supply chain with over 140 external and internal suppliers in 14 markets. This vast geographical presence created several challenges.
- Complex Regulatory Compliance – RBI faced a highly complex regulatory environment due to its global reach and the varied, evolving nature of legal and financial regulations in these markets.
- Poor Data Quality and Reporting – RBI needed to report on critical aspects of their operations, including regulatory reporting, which involved intricate details and multiple data fields. The absence of a single source of truth made it difficult to track active contracts, expiry dates, and collate this data during audits or governance meetings.
- Transformation Challenges – RBI required a CLM provider with a thorough understanding of its operational environment and a solution that could operate efficiently in multiple languages. There was also concern about managing legacy databases alongside a new CLM.
- Lack of Standardization – The dependence on locally stored clauses and templates led to non-standardized contract practices, posing major risks when drafting contracts with entities from different jurisdictions.
“We have to report on 50 different data fields where you have to make sure that your data quality is good… The journey only starts on data quality, and if the data quality is not OK, the value of the system deteriorates very much.”
Solution
RBI’s challenges required a nuanced and strategic approach and a CLM that could support the volume of a large, international enterprise. Sirion addressed these challenges by:
- Establishing a unified contract repository – Sirion digitized and migrated 20,000 contracts from country-level data silos into a single repository, accessible across all 14 of the bank’s locations.
- Standardizing its contract system – Sirion introduced standardized clause and template libraries and country-specific authoring workflows in a way that office-level users only saw the localized versions they needed. Sirion’s AI also suggested clauses from the bank’s library to speed up contract drafting.
- Providing customization and language support – Sirion’s CLM allowed RBI to configure their platform and workflows in seven languages.
- Simplifying system configuration and implementation – RBI had the flexibility to choose an implementation strategy that began with the most complex units, believing that success in these areas would pave the way for a smoother overall rollout.
- Offering unmatched performance management and data visibility – Visual dashboards enabled RBI to track renewals, obligations, deliverables, and regulatory requirements – all within a single platform.
“What is very attractive is that you don’t need a lot of IT resources… We don’t need a lot of resources to roll out Sirion. You need IT resources in a limited way.”
Impact
By implementing Sirion and refocusing on full lifecycle management, RBI saw significant improvements in the bank’s ability to manage complex regulatory compliance issues, respond swiftly to international sanctions, and enhance overall operational efficiency. The impacts were felt both at the central group level and within local entities, demonstrating the comprehensive effectiveness of Sirion in a complex, multinational banking environment.
RBI quickly saw:
- Enhanced contract management efficiency by integrating with multiple siloed systems and using AI to centralize the contract portfolio.
- Reduced resistance to CLM adoption across different markets and addressed potential challenges early with Sirion’s flexible integration approach.
- Simplified regulatory reporting and governance meetings now that they could monitor every contract across every stage of its lifecycle, from authoring to expiry.
- Improved supply chain collaboration with standardized contracting practices and increased visibility into international entities’ contracts.
- Enhanced contract governance and significantly boosted efforts to meet EU banking regulations and EBA standards.
- Increased contract output by 60% through the seamless authoring of over 100 contracts every month with standardized clauses and templates.
- Decreased overall time needed to draft a contract by 50% across all markets.
- Quicker response to sanctions with the ability to assess the impact of international sanctions on their supply relationships on demand. RBI could respond to new sanctions within a few hours.
“Sirion helps you enormously– if sanctions are issued either by corporate decision or governmental sanctions– to understand the impact on your supply chain very fast.”
Additional Resources
Contract Obligation And Compliance Management Essentials
Contract Compliance Audit: Overview, Benefits, and Steps
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