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This Jacko ain't wacko about bad service levelsJACKO MAREE
HAVING worked for the Standard Bank group since graduating 17 years ago, Jacko Maree is only now taking his first steps into the broader world of man-in-the-street banking. This month he was promoted from the helm of Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank to oversee Standard Bank's domestic operations, still including SCMB but also incorporating retail, commercial and regional banking, operations utility and investment products. The introduction of this post frees Mike Vosloo from the day-to-day responsibility of running a massive portfolio. It allows Vosloo to concentrate on strategic issues and the group's international expansion. In the year to December 1997, Standard Bank Investment Corporation earned more than R2-billion from total assets of R147-billion. Stanbic stands out in that there has never been a significant train-smash - unlike most of the other high-street banks. Yet Maree does not seek to rest on old laurels. He sees his youth - "I'm only 42" - as a plus in a world which attracts young fliers. "Although I have absolutely no background in retail banking, I don't carry any baggage either," says Maree. "The bank is doing reasonably well, there are lots of initiatives and our track record shows that we have not lost ground to our traditional competitors. But the newer banks, stockbrokers and foreign players have made inroads. The challenge is finding how to maintain that pace. "There is definitely a danger of the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' syndrome among the staff, an inbuilt resistance to change. Yet we will have to make changes if we don't want to lose business opportunities." Maree notes that while there will definitely be a shift away from delivering banking services in bricks and mortar branches, in favour of electronic, telephone and Internet banking, branches will always exist. "There is much more to be done in terms of service levels: you go to any dinner party and everybody has a story about poor banking service. I think a lot is to do with having the right information at the finger-tips of the staff." Maree says the millennium bug - what under-programmed computers might do after midnight on 31 December 1999 - is being taken care of, and the costs of R100-million and upwards taken on the chin: "As Mike Vosloo says, it is a recurring item, it recurs every thousand years!" Many of Standard's clients want to see progress on affirmative action. Maree agrees it falls squarely on his shoulders to make it happen. Progress is double-edged: the very clients who desire to see change are less forgiving if an error is caused through inexperience. He is pleased that Standard has been reappointed as banker to the Gauteng Provincial Administration, noting that the bank's lending exposure is small. "Our input has been in electronic and transactional banking, improving levels of service and efficiency and so on rather than a lot of bank-rolling. We have lent mainly against specific projects." A third area of challenge lies in extending the concept of wealth creation. "We have a natural 20% to 25% share of the banking market but attract only 5% or 6% of the unit trust market. In effect, all investment products are sold rather than bought, yet not enough of our banking customers have ever had a cold-call about investing in products like unit trusts. This aspect as the broader bank-assurance concept, is not operating optimally and we feel there is potential." While Maree agrees there could be problems within the bank if clients move their fixed deposits into investment products, the risk of losing that money altogether is yet greater. Another issue is for the Standard Bank group to be able to attract bright young talent. "There is no doubt that the newer banks have attracted a lot of young people away from the traditional career path and it is up to us to bring them back this way in the future." Julie Walker
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