case study: raiffeisen case study:


IBS Journal January 2016


Esprit de corps


Mathias Schütz, CEO of Arizon, a Swiss joint venture (JV) between co-operative bank Raiffeisen and banking software specialist Avaloq, discusses the reasons for its founda- tion and how Arizon intends to migrate 300 banks to a new platform by the end of 2017.


Raiffeisen HQ, St Gallen © Raiffeisen


Success within any industry can be helped by astute partnerships and working well together. People can go it alone, and many do,


but there comes a time when teamwork moves events along much quicker. From this model of co-operation –


prosperity and progression can develop; and so Arizon was created with a clear goal in mind. The JV was founded in January 2015


(and by the end of that year Raiffeisen acquired 10% of Avaloq’s treasury shares) on the back of talks between Raiffeisen and Avaloq that began in early 2014. As the Swiss proverb goes ‘the devil hides himself in the details’; and so it took time to sort out all the finer points. Schütz says the scope of the compa-


ny, company structure, and defining which parts of the organisation of Raiffeisen would move to Arizon, had to be sorted out carefully. Overseeing all of this is Schütz himself.


Before joining Arizon as CEO, he worked with Avaloq for 14 years, the last three years as regional head for Western and Southern Europe. He says: ‘Since I was responsible for the


ramp-up of many new Avaloq locations globally, I was familiar with what it takes to set up new companies and to build a foot- print with a completely new staff base. ‘In addition, I was responsible on an executive level for several Avaloq


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implementation projects, and this experience helps me to properly repre- sent Arizon in the steering of our major programme.’ His involvement is easily understood


and, equally, the company’s mission is clear – to migrate all Raiffeisen banks to the new platform by the end of 2017.


A new legacy While the main target is singular, the mo- tivation for Arizon’s creation are ‘manifold’ according to Schütz. He describes the current IT and busi-


ness process architecture of Raiffeisen as ‘fragmented’. Client master files, current and saving


accounts, and credit positions are held in 300 separate Dialba (legacy system) instal- lations and processed in a decentralised fashion in the ‘dedicated’ Raiffeisen banks. Client custody and securities process-


© IBS Intelligence 2016 www.ibsintelligence.com


ing were fully outsourced to Vontobel, a Swiss private bank, while payments pro- cessing and central bank activities are cen- tralised at Raiffeisen Schweiz. With this situation in mind, Schütz says


the ‘primary goals’ of the JV are to provide an integrated view of cash and securities positions and to consolidate all business functionality and processes on a modern and centralised IT architecture. He adds: ‘As a result, the outsourcing


contract with Vontobel has been terminated.’ So for Raiffeisen the JV provided a


‘unique chance to gain’ Avaloq as a tech- nology partner in developing a new com- mon banking platform for the group’s member banks. Of course, as part of that ‘gain’ it has


does have its full ‘skin in the game’, accord- ing to Schütz – meaning it’s subjected to monetary risk because it’s invested in com- pleting this particular goal.


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