International
The International
Directorate
reshaped
Senior
appointments
In May:
Bank SeOUl
Bank Birmingham
BAank Pittsburgh
Staff journal of the ABN Bank, Amsterdam, Holland, and affiliations
July 1979, No. 2
Three new branches
opened officially
ABN Banknotes
On the 1st of June a new
organization within the Inter
national Directorate became
effective. The chart on page 2
shows how it works, and who
are in charge of the various
departments and groups.
An old name disappeared...
For many years the International
Directorate, and the organization
which preceded it, were known by
the commonly used name of
"CBK". Often used as an equivalent
to "Amsterdam", those few initials
were on the tip of the tongue of
almost every employee in our fo
reign offices when speaking about
head-office. The name has been
abolished, not because it wasn't
good enough, but because the name
did no longer cover exactly the
activities of the relative depart
ment.
What does the International
Directorate do?
So from now on we speak of the
"International Directorate" only.
And for those who are possibly not
too familiar with faraway -
Amsterdam, we briefly explain the
task of this directorate: it has the
general management responsibility
for the whole of our foreign net
work, within directives as laid down
by our Managing Board.
This little phrase means of course
quite a lot, and you will understand
that for the proper execution of its
tasks the International Directorate
certainly relies on many experts
within our bank outside its own
organization. Those are to be found
in other we call them "functio
nal" directorates, like Personnel,
Liquidities, Administration, Secu
rities, Commercial Development,
and some staff departments. But it
is logical that the International Di
rectorate also needs its own, pro
perly working organization. With
the growth of our foreign network
this organization necessarily re
quires adjustments from time to
time.
What happens now?
In the first place old "CBK"
disappeared and was replaced by
the Risk Management Department.
Why this change? Well, the Inter
national Directorate is responsible
for the control of all commercial
risks as they are being taken by our
foreign branches and affiliates. Not
only for the risks related to lending.
The HBU building Herengracht,
Amsterdam, in which the Inter
national Directorate is also housed.
Therefore, the Risk Management
Department is not only dealing
withloans(proposals, revisions,etc.),
but also with risks related to liqui
dity positions, foreign exchange,
investments in securities and with
country-risks (or transfer-risks).
such of course in co-operation with
the afore-mentioned "functional"
directorates and staff departments.
You will understand that those new
tasks cannot be effectively ex
ecuted from the very first day, but
will take shape over a somewhat
longer period.
Further growth of our foreign
network is another important goal
of the International Directorate.
The General Affairs Department
has been constituted to help
achieve that aim. After all, there
should be enough people in the
International Directorate working
on the questions that arise when
further expansion goes on or on the
problems that come up now that
competition in international bank
ing becomes stiffer. The staff in this
department will therefore be in
creased, possibly even by tempo
rarily assigning Dutch expatriates
from our foreign network. Another
main job of this department is the
screening of, and coordination for,
building proposals from our foreign
offices, and it monitors the relative
investment budgets. Besides, it
deals with some other general mat
ters, like publicity, insurance, etc.
These are the two line-depart
ments, as we call them. Besides,
four staff groups were formed: Se
cretariat, Planning Analysis, Risk
Control and Internal Regulations.
The Secretariat's chief acts as
secretary for the official meetings
of the International Directorate and
deals with legal aspects of our
foreign affiliates. He also supervises
the secretarial staff and telex- and
mail-room. The Planning Analysis
group has existed for some time
already, and its task comprises stu
dies and analysis of all kinds of
internal and external developments
so as to assist in formulating the
International Directorate's medium-
term policies.
The Risk Control Group is entire
ly new. The members of this group
will periodically visit our foreign
Continued on page 2, Col. 1)
It is known that per 1st January,
1980. Mr. W.J. van der Mei, Senior
Manager in the bank's foreign service
and managing director of Albank
Alsaudi Alhollandi will succeed Mr.
H. Harms, who will retire at that
time. In the International Directo
rate Mr. Van der Mei will be res
ponsible for the group of countries
in the Middle East and Africa. At
the appropriate time we will give
extensive attention to this matter.
Mr. A.E.J.M. Blank has been ap
pointed as General Manager of the
Directorate Liquidities with effect
of 1st May, 1979. Mr. Blank came
into the service of
the Hollandsche
Bank-Unie in Amster
dam in 1975. In 1971
he moved to the Fo
reign Treasury De
partment of the ABN.
His appointment as
Chief Manager fol
lowed on 1st Janua
ry, 1977.
Mr. H. Harms and Mr. W.J. van
der Mei, photographed in Riyadh
The ABN will mainly look for expansion outside The
Netherlands. It has once more become evident that Europe and
North America are especially thought of in this connection,
although any possibilities in other parts of the world certainly
don't lack attention. As if to confirm this expansion-policy, no
less than three new offices were opened in the month of May in
rapid succession, namely in Seoul, Birmingham and Pittsburgh.
Mr. E.O. Langelaar, Chief General Manager of the International
Directorate, was present at all three openings, covering almost
the entire world in this effort. Birmingham was an intermediate
step between the opening of the other two new offices, in
which connection following notes were made.
Birmingham suffered badly in
World War II. Therefore, the old,
original city centre to a great extent
no longer exists. Between remaining
historical buildings, offices and
houses, many new buildings have
risen up since the war. Apart from
this the City Council seems to have
taken the opportunity to provide
adequate parkingspace in a city
which has a population of over one
million.
Birmingham is the second city in
Great Britain and has been growing
steadily since the Industrial Revolu
tion (1760-1830). In twelve to
thirteen centuries it has developed
from a small settlement to an indus
trial centre of importance, not only
Waterloo Street, Birmingham.
to England but also to western
Europe. It is the city where James
Watt developed the steamengine
and, together with Matthew Boul-
ton, opened the Soho Works in
1762. Nowadays many big compa
nies have established their Head
Offices in Birmingham and sur
rounding areas, like British Ley-
land, Dunlop Holdings, Chrysler
U.K., Boots Company, Lucas Indus
tries, to mention only a few well-
known ones. Birmingham is res
ponsible for 25 of the total na
tional exports!
The city itself has 1.1 million
inhabitants, while the number of
inhabitants of the West Midlands,
of which Birmingham functions as
the regional centre, is nearly 10
million. Since the War many Irish
and Asian immigrants have settled
in Birmingham.
A great deal of attraction is exer
cised on the international business
world by Europe's largest and most
modern exhibition and congress
centre, opened in 1976. The Natio
nal Exhibition Centre covers
90,000 square meters. It is a town
in itself, and includes a luxurious
hotel, ideally situated, close to the
airport and just outside the city.
Birmingham may rightly look
upon itself as an international busi-
(Continued on page 4, Col. 1)
Mr. Gemke shows the Lord
Mayor round.
