Ukrsotsbank Internship Journal: The 3-Day Work Week

This past week at my internship was much shorter than usual, with only three working days as a result of Orthodox Ascension on Monday, 24 June, and then Ukraine’s Constitution Day on Friday, 28 June. However, while the work week was 40% shorter, I was still quite busy in the PR Department with a new translation project—this time from English to Russian!

On Tuesday, upon coming into work, Маша (one of the ladies who works in my sub-department) asked me to translate the entirety of an internal PR document outlining how to use the yearly Local Sustainability Report. The report details what UniCredit/Ukrsotsbank did over the past year in order to ensure financial stability as well as environmental sustainability, both in terms of the business environment and the natural environment. However, while the basic structure and outline of the report is prepared centrally by UniCredit, country-specific details need to be filled in the PR department of each department. This allows the document to speak much more directly and closely to stakeholders and investors in each individual country in which the UniCredit Group operates, since there are often large differences between banking and finance operations between countries in Europe, especially in terms of sustainability initiatives. Thus, the bank essentially needs to have a report about how to use another report!

Translating the guidelines for the local sustainability report proved challenging almost immediately, simply because of the large number of rather cumbersome English phrases and somewhat unusual words in the document. However, a combination of my own knowledge, Google Translate, and cross-checking with my colleagues allowed me to get through the first three pages before the short week ended. I still have the bulk of the document to translate next week.

Additionally, I checked the English translation of a press release about the new internet banking services being started by Ukrsotsbank in Ukraine. I found a handful of relatively minor errors or oddly phrased expressions, but in general I found it more interesting to learn more about the development of online banking and commerce in Ukraine. Online business and financial transactions are increasing rapidly here, and it is good to see that Ukrsotsbank and UniCredit are committed to providing technologically updated client services to the people of Ukraine. I still think that the bank should develop a mobile banking app though…

Anyway, I certainly didn't mind not having to work Friday afternoon, and ended up using my free time to meet up with Yurii, the only other guy in my part of the office, for a free beach party near the Dnieper River. Unfortunately, after only about an hour it started to rain heavily, which ended up leading to quite an adventure...but that's maybe a topic for another post.

Ukrostsbank Internship Journal

Since I have to keep a weekly journal of what I do at my internship anyway, in order to receive academic credit through The School of Russian and Asian Studies (SRAS), I figured I'd just make my journal entries the regular Monday post here on SMTC for the remainder of my time in Ukraine.

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Ukrsotsbank Internship Journal
17.06.2013 – 21.06.2013

This was my second full week in the PR Department, and I felt like I finally began to settle into a regular routine. I started off the week by finishing up the English version of my PowerPoint report/presentation on the potential PR-related problems that Uksotsbank could face in the near future during its legal merger with UniCredit Bank. I had started to translate it into Russian as extra practice, but just decided to refine and simplify it in English and give it to Nastya, my manager, as soon as possible. She was very happy to receive it, and told me it was very excellent work.

My next project was to condense the bank’s long and detailed political risk report for Ukraine—which is prepared for shareholders and investors every year—into a shorter and more readable single-page document. The original idea for the project was actually mine; I had seen the new reports lying in the office and, being naturally intrigued, picked one up and began reading. While I found it very interesting, I also thought it a bit too detailed for its purpose…and if I, a history major, thought it was overwhelming, then what were other people going to think? Thus I approached my managers and asked if I could condense the political and economic information presented in the report to one page. My idea was well-received and after a couple hours I finished my “executive summary” version of the report. Hopefully it will allow investors and businessmen—Ukrainian, American, and others—to make better-informed decisions.

Next, my managers asked me to prepare, in English, short slide deck with finance definitions for kids. Ukrsotsbank/UniCredit is developing some new marketing materials aimed at making finance fun and easily comprehensible for young children, in the form of children’s books. After doing extensive research on the internet about best practices for explaining banking to children, I put together a short slide deck that defined such basic terms and concepts as currency, deposits, credits, debits, debt, etc. Not exactly an extremely challenging project, but interested nonetheless.

My final project of the week, on Friday, was to translate a press release about the recent awards Ukrsotsbank/UniCredit has received from Global Finance magazine. Unlike most of my translation work to date, this time I was translating from English to Russian. It was obviously much more difficult, and took me the better part of the afternoon to finish, but I was able to deliver what I deemed to be an accurate translation by the end of the working day. I will see what Yurii, who handles most of the press releases, has to say about it on Tuesday, since we have a long weekend this week.

In addition to the four concrete tasks outlined above, I also kept my superiors updated on external PR developments I noted. For example, I purchased the Ukrainian business magazine Власть Денег (“The Power of Money”) last weekend, and among the many reviews and ratings of various finance and credit terms, I found an article which ranked Ukrsotsbank #1 in Ukraine for long-term loans and mortgages. When I showed it to Nastya, she had not heard anything about it from the external PR team, so she was very grateful for the article as it was excellent PR material. It seems my extra efforts to learn about business in Ukraine outside of my internship and classes are paying off in unexpected ways at the office.

Ukrsotsbank & UniCredit: The Name Game

Well, after the fourth day at my internship in Kiev, I have finally sorted out the identity of my current employer, and now understand the hidden complexities behind the names of both <<Ukrsotsbank>> and it's sister corporation, <<UniCredit Bank.>>

In starting my new project about the PR and corporate identity challenges that both banks will face during their upcoming (and long-awaited) merger, I researched the history of UniCredit Group's operations in Ukraine. While this might be somewhat boring for some readers of my blog, I nonetheless wanted to post about it, if only to explain the history for my own benefit.

In 2007, the bulge-bracket Italian bank UniCredit Group (sometimes referred to as just "the Group" here) was operating in Ukraine through three different banks: UniCredit Bank (originally established in 1997 with Polish capital); the branches of HVB Bank Ukraine; and the branches of PJSC Ukrsotsbank, set up in 1990. The latter two banks were acquired by UniCredit Group within Ukraine. However, while HVB was quickly merged with UniCredit under the latter name, Ukrsotsbank--which UniCredit purchased from famous Ukrainian billionaire and oligarch Viktor Pinchuk for $2.07 billion--retained its former name, both operationally and legally. Since Ukrsotsbank had better name and brand recognition in Ukraine than HVB did, it made sense at the time.

Ukrsotsbank was one of the few banks in Eastern Europe to remain strong and profitable during the global recession--no small feat, to be sure. It was regarded as one of the strongest, if not necessarily largest, banks in Ukraine, with one of the most sound balance sheets and capital reserves. However, in 2011 UniCredit Group announced that it was rebranding Ukrsotsbank under the UniCredit Bank name, as simply the next step in the strategic integration process of UniCredit operations in Ukraine. Since then, all Ukrsotsbank branches bear the UniCredit name, thought legally the company is still PJSC Ukrsotsbank, and the shares on the Ukrainian national stock exchange trade under the Ukrsotsbank name.

Hence, the confusion over the identity of Ukrsotsbank vis-a-vis UniCredit Bank vis-a-vis UniCredit Group.

Italian parent banking group, which previously operated in Ukraine through....

 HVB Bank merged with UniCredit Bank in 2007...

leaving two bank brands...

And soon, Ukrsotsbank will merge with UniCredit Bank, leaving only the UniCredit Bank name in Ukraine 

A formal, legal merger of Ukrsotsbank and UniCredit Bank was announced at the time of the rebranding, but like all merger processes--especially in finance--it has taken longer than expected to complete. However, the merger is expected to be complete sometime in the next year, and my current project at the Corporate Identity office of Ukrsotsbank is to investigate and report out about various PR and client/investor relations issues the bank might face during the merger process.

In conducting the research for my project, I came to realize that my previous posts here on Send Me the Cabbage were inaccurate. Technically--legally speaking--I am currently interning at PJSC Ukrsotsbank, which operates under the UniCredit Bank name; and both Ukrsotsbank and UniCredit Bank are subsidiary operations of UniCredit Group.

Понятно?

To play off of an old Foxtrot comic...the key to working in corporate identity is knowing the identity of your corporation. I'm hopeful I can help guide Ukrsotsbank and UniCredit clients and shareholders through the merger process and help strengthen the market share of the UniCredit Group here in Ukraine.

Ukrsotsbank: First Impressions

My internship finally began in earnest this past Thursday, and after two days on the job I felt like posting about my first impressions and what I've learned so far. Since I have to keep a journal of my internship for my study abroad program, in order to get cultural immersion credit for my Russian minor at IU, I'll be able to keep track of my experience on a regular basis.

After spending two hours on Wednesday traveling to various UniCredit offices here in Kiev to take care of all of my paperwork and make sure I knew about the safety rules and regulations, my first impression is that Ukrainian banks are just about as bureaucratic as American banks. In fact, I was struck by not only how similar the paperwork and HR process seemed to be, but also at how much I was able to understand during the safety lecture. Fire extinguisher instructions are about the same in Ukrainian as in English.

On Thursday after class I took the metro to Olimpiskii station and walked to my office nearby. The weather was great and I was finally breaking in my new Brooks Brothers suit. I don’t think Kievans often see tall, red-headed young foreigners walking around in suits and power ties, but I wanted to make a great impression on my first day and I definitely did. I first met with Nastya (Настия), one of my immediate supervisors, and she could not have been nicer. She informed me that I actually have a choice as to which of the three PR departments I want to work in this summer, so I will probably choose External Communications department since that involves the highest-profile PR work as well as the most English. She was impressed that I had already researched the identity and history of Ukrsotsbank and knew a little bit about their more recent shareholder and client relations issues.

After meeting the rest of my colleagues at the office--all of whom also seemed very nice and very interested in their first-ever American intern-- I was given a very nice and large desk, and they tried to get me internet access but were unable to get it to work. It seems internet systems in Ukraine are not very fast, even at large banks. After arranging my desk, I was told I was free to go for the day and would actually start tomorrow (Friday), but instead I asked if there was anything at all I could do. I was already at the office and was excited and in work mode, and did not want to waste my momentum.

So I was given the UniCredit Ukraine 2012 annual report to review, and asked to do a final edit of the entire 152-page report. One of my other supervisors said that it had already been reviewed for final publication to shareholders and the public, but it was very important that someone with an excellent grasp of English proofread it one last time. It’s a good thing I did, too, because I found a few relatively significant errors and countless grammatical problems and misspellings. On Friday I was asked to do more editing and review work on one of my supervisor's presentation slidedecks as well as for the English-language version of the  UniCredit Ukraine website.

So far, I have a favorable impression of both Ukrsotsbank/UniCredit and the general working environment in Kiev, which is more open and friendly than I assumed would be the case. Also almost everyone knows at least a little English and seems more than willing to help me improve my Russian. Настия also told me, after I explained my specific interest in investment banking, that I should get in touch with Ukrsotsbank’s IB division here in Kiev (which I didn’t even know existed). She said I had been placed with the PR department mainly because of my former professional experience with PR work, but that I might be able to transfer to the investment banking group. I was honestly very surprised to find such openness and flexibility at an Eastern European bank; I had assumed that the atmosphere would be different, but as with many of my other preconceived notions about Ukraine, I have been proved wrong upon actually living here!