Welcome to „Discover CEE“!

This is Raiffeisen Bank International’s blog and information platform for leading experts, analysts and successful entrepreneurs and companies, to share their ideas, visions and experiences about doing business in CEE. Our goal is to connect opinion leaders, inspire entrepreneurs and businesses and show the potential, diversity and beauty of the entire CEE region.

  • Culinary highlights

    In summer, due to rising temperatures and brighter evenings, friends and families meet outside for a barbecue or a nice dinner. We have looked at some countries where our CEE network banks are doing business, to see which culinary highlights are ideal for a wonderful summer evening. Be inspired by the beloved Siberian dish Pelmeni […]

  • Do not fight the ECB in CEE

    By Gunter Deuber, RBI “Do not fight the Fed” is considered a core motto on international financial markets and among professional market observers. In the current crisis, this applies equally to the ECB. The ECB’s action is currently seen by financial market players as sufficiently decisive and timely (e.g. rapid announcement of the flexible PEPP […]

  • EU COVID-19 crisis response: A look from the CE/SEE perspective

    By Gunter Deuber, RBI From the perspective of the CE/SEE region, there are currently some positive aspects emerging from the rather swift and joint economic policy response to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Overall, the EU is making available some 5-6% of GDP as an anti-cyclical crisis response. For comparison: Joint EU economic policy efforts in […]

  • Is Cloud computing a disrupter in financial services?

    By David Zeller, RBI Like electricity from the socket, cloud services are almost immediately available without having to order, install and maintain technical infrastructure within a company. Cloud providers guarantee immediate access and unlimited resources. This results in an incredible gain in speed and is therefore especially important for innovations. But could it be a […]

  • CEE Bank Card Fraud Trends

    By Alexandra Shevchuk, Raiffeisenbank Russia Raiffeisenbank and Kaspersky Lab analyzed the key trends of bank card fraud in 2019. The analysis and conclusions are based on data from Raiffeisenbank’s card transaction monitoring system, information provided by fraud analysts at Kaspersky Lab, as well as data from the FinCERT report by the Bank of Russia. Reduced […]

  • Cloud and Security: “The bank is always responsible for the security of customers’ data”

    By Peter Gerdenitsch, RBI | When it comes to information security, the financial sector can be considered as one of the most mature industries in the market. Security concepts have always been part of banks in the form of organizational and technical security measures, which structure the continuous effort to protect customer data and the […]

  • A close look at 19 fintech ecosystems in CEE

    By Katja Fiedler, RBI | More than 65 per cent of the population in CEE is expected to be using digital banking services by the end of 2020 making the region an attractive market for fintechs, that is to say technology providers to the financial services industry or financial services providers utilizing technology as a […]

  • Advanced Analytics: “Identifying relevant patterns helps us to solve real life problems”

    By David Eschwé, Vjekoslav Bonic and Robert Barcik | Advanced Analytics & Artificial Intelligence Tribe at RBI               The technical developments over the last years have fueled tremendous Advanced Analytics activities around the world. Every day new sophisticated approaches are developed. Within the Advanced Analytics & Artificial Intelligence Tribe […]

  • Covid-19 in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Substantive external support, complex decision-making and profound Austrian interests

    By Ivona Zametica, Raiffeisen BANK (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Gunter Deuber and Casper Engelen, RBI             When Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) was first exposed to the coronavirus pandemic the country reacted with swift and decisive containment measures. The containment measures imposed were among the strictest in CEE, which resulted in a […]

  • eSpeedtrack: Export financing for small ticket transactions

    By Andreas Schild, RBI | How a digitized financing solution called eSpeedtrack makes export financing possible for transactions from EUR 2 to 10 million So far, importers had a very hard time finding buyer’s credit financing for amounts up to EUR 10 million. Banks have mainly concentrated on big-ticket export transactions leaving the lower market […]