Text 3.3 international commercial operations

Section A

With regard to international commercial loans, both volume and interest and commission income rose to record levels, The continued economic growth in OECD countries and the further acquisition of companies in North America and Europe contributed greatly to this performance.

The strong build-up of our capacity for structured financing transactions and their syndication enabled us to acquire important lead-management* mandates in our principal centres of operation. Despite stiff competition, we succeeded in maintaining our number one position in the United States in the field of credit guarantee operations, especially with regard to the credit enhancement of car loans and credit card receivables. Such transactions were also carried out for the first time in connection with Euromarket financing. We acquired most of our mandates for takeover financing from European customers in North America and Europe. In addition, we participated in various takeover operations involving large American firms, In the sector of project financing, focus centered on lead management mandates for important gold mining, electric power station and infrastructural projects, With regard to the latter, an attractive market has developed due to the process of privatization in Europe. During the year under review, we obtained our first management mandates for first rate properties in our newly developed sector for commercial real estate financing in North America.

Section B

Export financing operation, in Switzerland developed favorably. The volume of new business expanded further, although Swiss merchandise exports concentrated increasingly on the OECD nations and, as a result, traditional export financing coupled with the federal Export Risk Guarantee (ERG) was less in demand. In May 1989, the revision of the ERG implementing ordinance went into effect, whereby the Swiss ERG was aligned to a greater extent with most of the other OECD nations' export risk insurance programs.

Section С

Parallel to the global economic growth, cross-border trade in commodities, food products and semi-manufactures has shown a steady gain. To satisfy the requirements of our international customers who operate in these sectors we are setting up. new units in New York and London to specialize in short- and medium-term trade and merchandise financing. With the acquisition of lead management mandates our Bank has attained a strong market position in this field, especially in Great Britain.

Section D

In our documentary credit and guarantee operations, not only the volume of business and the amount of sales but also income showed marked advances despite the fact that the precarious debt situation in important semi- industrialized and developing countries prevenred or delayed larger transactions. In commodity operations, emphasis shifted from crude oil transactions to business in derivatives and other commodities.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16