Jackson:  Some of the current IT trends in Asia's banking sector are virtualisation, cloud computing, voice biometrics, mobile commerce, and contactless payments. Do you think these are sustainable; and how are these evolving? 


Weisscher: From an IT perspective virtualisation and cloud computing are essential in ensuring optimum operating costs especially facing increased potential “hardware hungry” security baselines, high availability requirements and continuous focus on cost-cutting. Hence, in my view virtualisation and (private) cloud computing are high priority and definitely sustainable.


Mobile commerce and contactless payments are initiatives driven by the business and within Rabobank the business requirements diverse largely between the regions and the business lines (retail versus wholesale banking). The Asia region is predominantly focused on wholesale banking and has different business priorities. Rabobank Netherlands on the other hand is the biggest Retail bank in the Netherlands and is known for its innovative character. To remain attractive as a retail bank you’ll continuously need to deliver value added services to your customers next to your traditional banking products. Mobile commerce / banking and contactless payments are good examples of those value added banking services.


Since the late nineties Rabobank had consumer projects in the Netherlands with mobile (WAP) banking. These initiatives have evolved over the years and nowadays Rabobank is the first bank in Europe to introduce mobile banking and low-cost calling in one with Rabo Mobile.


Rabo Mobile lets you transfer funds between payment, savings and investment accounts and transfer funds to another account. In addition to the standard mobile services and daily banking transactions, special banking products and services are also available, customers can receive a text message to notify them when their salary has been credited to their account, the mortgage payment has been deducted or if the balance is above or below a predetermined limit. Plus it will be possible within the foreseeable future to use mobile phones for contact-free payments.


From an emerging markets perspective Rabobank focuses with local partner banks in Africa on mobile technology to increase the accessibility of banking services for people living in both rural and urban areas. Contributing to the financial inclusion of the large unbanked population by reaching out to customers who never had access to banking before.


Another innovation of Rabobank is the cooperation with the Dutch social network Hyves  with which we launched Hyves Payments. Now Hyves users can send and receive money via their Hyves account. To each profile a link “send money to” is added and transfers up to 150 euro to anyone in the network can be made. The Hyves account can be linked to any Dutch bank account to add money to or withdraw money from your Hyves account. All payments are debit payments for peer-to-peer transactions, no costs are involved. Already 30 per cent of the restaurants and bars in the Netherlands instantly can accept Hyves Payments.


Jackson:  What are your views on the potential of these technologies within Rabobank’s technology strategies?


Weisscher: In my view the technology is not leading but an enabler to make these kinds of new banking products reality. The technology strategy should follow the business strategy and ambition.


Jackson:  How much is mobile computing part of Rabobank’s IT strategy in Asia, and how do you balance the convenience of communicating through mobile channels while also keeping customer data secure?


Weisscher: Mobile computing is not high on the agenda in Asia. From a security perspective we are not a big fan of mobile computing in Asia. Basically we only provide remote access to a limited number of staff and they can only access applications like email, word, excel, etc. No banking applications can be used via mobile computing.


Jackson:  As Regional Head of IT Systems and Development across Asia can you share with us some of the other IT developments we can expect to see from Rabobank in 2010/2011?


Weisscher: The business related IT developments in 2010 will be the launch of a Cash Management Portal for Asia’s corporate customers as well as the IT requirements for countries where Rabobank is building up its business. Particular in China, India and Indonesia this requires substantial IT effort to follow the business requirements there.


To enable increased global governance we’ve just kicked-off the implementation of the Global Standard Ledger (PeopleSoft) and a Financial Data Warehouse for the Asia region. To improve operational excellence another initiative has kicked-off as well, this initiative focussed on moving the inputting and processing of Global Financial Markets transactions to our Dutch based head office (including transferring the deals from our Asia based system to the head office based systems). Furthermore, in 2009 we already started the regional processing of the Corporate Banking transactions in our Hong Kong based Regional Processing Centre (RPC). Especially this last initiative increases the need to implement a tool that enables us to automate the process flows between RPC and the Asia branches.


Jackson: Is there a place for ‘Green IT’ in the Asian banking industry right now, and are there advantages in running less resource intensive IT operations?


Weisscher: As a socially responsible bank, Rabobank is always looking out for ‘Green IT’ possibilities, from big initiatives like building a green data centre in the Netherlands to smaller ones like switching of all PC’s over night in the locations. Being a real socially responsible bank is one of Rabobanks core values and is adhered to worldwide. The advantages of ‘Green IT’ are evident in my view, Rabobank contributes to a better environment and in the long run we’ll be running a more cost efficient environment. A clear win-win situation.


Jackson:  Before you came to Asia you were based in the Netherlands with Rabobank. What are the similarities and differences you have experienced in the banking sector between Asia and the Netherlands?


Weisscher: I can only speak about the similarities and differences between Rabobank Netherlands and Rabobank International Asia region.


In the Netherlands we are the biggest retail bank and we have an All-Finance bank strategy while Rabobank in Asia is predominately a wholesale bank focused on the Food & Agriculture niche market. This makes the two almost incomparable from a banking sector perspective. So the most obvious differences are regarding our financial competitors, product range we can offer, technology investment budgets, attractiveness for talented human resources, etc. 


Similarities are more in the areas of having the advantage of being a Triple A rated commercial bank, the Rabobank company culture and history, focus on the interest of the customers instead of the shareholders (Rabobank is a cooperation and is not a listed company), etc.


Jackson: One of your past responsibilities was setting up a ‘Standard Operating Environment’ across Asia to standardise processes and procedures within IT and operations. How do you go about setting up such integration; and what are your main IT priorities?


Weisscher: Key to success in a standardisation process is simple and straight forward: “don’t give up!” as nobody likes standardisation.


In our case we followed a step-by-step approach. First step is to physically centralise the IT systems in one physical location (in our case Singapore). This is the easiest step as a solid business case is driving this and therefore management buy-in is relatively simple.


The next step is to merge the different IT teams into one (virtual) regional IT team. This goes together with a new organisational structure including (if required) some relocation of resources. Resistance is there so it’s a must to create a sense of urgency, team-spirit and an environment that allows open communication. It’s quite a big change to be part of a team and to work closely together with colleagues that are working from a different location than your own.


The last step is to socialise these changes amongst the end-user community (with a strong emphasis on what the improvements are) and educate them at the same time. The biggest change for the end-users is that in the past they had the IT support teams in their locations, knew them by name and all was very informal. In the new situation users are being forced to call the regional help-desk and follow the more formalised regional incident, escalation and change procedures.


Jackson: Corporate governance has taken on a new perspective in the light of last year’s Global Financial Crisis. What business rules and automation are incorporated into Rabobank’s IT systems to ensure there are no unpleasant surprises?


Weisscher: The financial crisis happened at the same time we were implementing our Asia Data Warehouse. This was a lucky coincidence as it provided the business the platform to do extensive stress testing on the Asia portfolio. Other than that, for all our systems we make use of advanced user-profiling and multiple layers of build-in authorisation.


Jackson: You are currently responsible for Rabobanks’ day-to-day system support as well as system strategy and architecture, project delivery and business analysis within the entire Asia region. What is the most critical aspect of these responsibilities; and how do you manage the challenges of these multiple roles?


Weisscher: The most critical is the day-to-day support. Although it’s been seen as the least ‘sexy’ activity it’s the most important one as the show must go-on whatever happens. It’s a real challenge to manage the different activities with a relative small group of people.


The way I manage is to give most of my staff dual roles (team lead & project manager, business analyst & architect, etc). Furthermore, if required we can get help from the global teams and we always ensure that when doing a project we partner-up with our end-users. With ‘partner-up’ I mean that they deliver a project manager and business analyst as well to ensure shared ownership and cooperation during the project. Experience learned that this is a key success factor for a smooth project implementation.


Jackson: You joined Rabobank as a Management Trainee in 1998.  After over 10 years with the same company what keeps you motivated in your job – is it the technology, Rabobank or the sector?


Weisscher: It’s a combination of all three elements. Rabobank is a great organisation, especially as we are a cooperation and we are not driven by shareholders value (as we are not listed) but by customer value. Rabobank gives a lot of room to its talents to gain different experiences that makes you grow professionally.


Technology, especially in the banking environment remains exciting. I don’t know any other area which is so innovative, open for changes, eager to improve existing technologies, etc. The great thing about the combination of IT and banking is that relatively large budgets are available for the IT component as it’s both the life-line of the bank and the key to set yourself apart as an organisation from the competitors (business enabler).


Jackson:  Every IT leader, particularly at your level, has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. What is yours?


Weisscher: I’d like to be remembered as the IT ambassador that got IT a better reputation within Rabobank Asia. With that I mean that I hope that the view management had in the past on IT has improved dramatically.


In the past, IT was considered to be a ‘hygiene’ factor and perceived quite negative by Asia management. I hope that during my years in Asia I’ve changed this perception with my people oriented management style, open communication and continuous marketing of the IT function within Rabobank Asia.