Vedrana Bogdanović

Hanging on the wall of my office, one of the most famous quotes from Warren Buffett says: "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing". This may be his advice to investors, but it is also a valuable warning both for employees in banking sector who deal with customer acquisitions and risk assessment and for employees in corporate sector.

All aspects of risks that arise from financial conditions, business models, market position, type of security and quality of management has gained in importance at the beginning of crisis. At that time, banks operating in our country confronted for the first time a serious level of problematic loans, while corporate sector confronted liquidity crisis, falling markets and more risk-averse approach by banks.
 
First analysis clearly showed that financial sector used to randomly enter into credit arrangements, without proper understanding of client’s real financial strength and qualitative information related to company's business. Not surprisingly, it soon turned out that those financial institutions that entered into credit transactions without clear picture of important aspects of the business have significantly high percentage of problematic loans. The same is true for those companies that did not invest in employee education in relevant fields: risk, financial analysis and sales.
When it comes to corporations, those companies that generally have modest knowledge in the field of finance had the highest percentage of problematic loans. Unable to recognize their true credit needs, they ended up signing inadequate credit arrangements or making bad investment decisions.

In short, if there is something related to credit application that a banker does not understand, even after detailed analysis, he should not enter into such an arrangement. Namely, without genuine understanding of client’s business, loan approval could become a game of chance rather than an encouraging and responsible banker’s decision that is the essence of banking.

Biography

In 2002, Vedrana Bogdanović graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. She got the MSc degree in Economics and Econometrics at the Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Vedrana has been working in banking sector for more that 10 years. For the last 7 years, she has been responsible for credit risk teams. Her previous professional engagement includes 7 years in  Raiffeisen Leasing and Raiffisen Bank. Currently, Vedrana holds the position - Credit Risk Officer in Credit Agricole Bank.