Bridging Gaps

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foreFRontDeutsche Bank

Bridging GapsBuilding a stronger partnership

between Manila and Mumbai

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What’s Inside

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[email protected]

Editorial TeamAbegail YaunAlvin Jachin LeongAnita NegiDhara MehtaJohn Mark BroncateKhanjan LodhaviaKartik VanzaraLeslie MagatLisse Anne BertumenLorraine FernandesMaria Celeste TorresMarian Teresa CruzPrajwala PoojaryRamesh JayaramanShaun Kevin Quipones

Editorial Advisors:Teresa FuentesLouiegi Reyes

Credits:dbEase – Excel Automation FrameworkNoopur Jain

IFRS Change: IFRS 13 Fair Value MeasurementAshish Ghag

Big Data TechnologyVinod Kavugoli

Interconnectivity is Fun for SPERTMichelle de Gorostiza

CSR Mumabi: The Pali Ashram VisitPuja Kanoj

Sparrow and the CityRamdas Navale

3Straight FRom the BOSEA Message from Ashok

4David Keen: Up Close and Personal

6A Dialogue with Ray Naussedat

8The Woman Behind the Name

10Cross-Border Resiliency Strategy and Plan

11Finance Induction: Welcoming the New Breed of FR

12dbEase – Excel Automation Framework

14IFRS Change: IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement

16A New Era of Easy Knowledge-Sharing: dbWiki

17SPE Breaks Down Silos with First Interactive Session

18Big Data Technology

20Passion and Dedication Amidst Crisis: The FR Manila Story

21The Ganesh Chaturthi Festival

22FRontline: Breaking the Barriers between Mumbai and Manila

24Interconnectivity is Fun for SPERT

25Through the Eyes of a Wayfarer

27CSR Mumbai: The Pali Ashram Visit

28FReeze Time: Chill-Out FRidays

29Sparrow and the City

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foreFRont would like to hear from you! Send in your comments, questions or suggestions to our mailbox. If you have any articles you wish to be published in the next issue, please do contact us.


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Dear Team,

In all my visits and meetings in Manila, and my conversations with the teams in Mumbai, it has been wonderful to see the growing partnership across both locations, and the benefits we are seeing from it.

We started the year by launching a number of critical initiatives, which required teams from both locations to work together - IUC Project, Resiliency, APAC Standardization, Metrics and Reference Data. I am really pleased that we have been able to effectively coordinate and rally together as one team and drive achievements on all these projects. It is also very heartening that we, now, not only reach out on project items, but are increasingly able to connect on process issues and opportunities - BuBa audit, BASTA Reporting, IT issues, IFRS, HGB etc.

As we go ahead, our vision will be towards standardization of our processes across Financial Reporting and become one face to our stakeholders. The platform has already been established, and I am confident that with the spirit of "One FR Team", we will achieve our objective and be recognized as a winning team.

We have a lot of deliverables as we go through the last quarter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your efforts, wish you the very best for the upcoming festive season, and look forward to all your support for a successful year-end.

Gautam Bose FR Managing Director

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Straight From the BOSE

A Message from Ashok

With the clear realisation that the success of the larger organization depends on one-team mindset, the distance between Manila and Mumbai is becoming unapparent.

To bridge the gap, teams from both locations have starting getting into the shoes of the other. There is greater understanding and ongoing communication of needs, capabilities and responsibilities that will result in a distinct competitive advantage for the PSC. To truly achieve maximum reliability and up time, the two teams must work together in the planning and implementation phases and consider all aspects of redundancy. The continuous connectivity and collaboration efforts between and within both locations has led to building stronger partnership between Manila and Mumbai. Teamwork is key to our success.

Ashok-N KumarHead of Financial Reporting – PSC Mumbai


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Over a cup of coffee on a Friday afternoon, the Finance PSC Head and DKS CEO David Keen shared his take on weekends, work, movies, and everything else in between.

Where did you spend your first paycheck?

Honestly, I would have definitely spent it in a bar. [With] my first paycheck, I was still living at home, so I suppose a little bit of it went to my mom, and the rest would have gone on me.

If you weren’t in banking, where would you be?

If I was dreaming, I’d like to be a professional sportsman. But I like the banking industry because of the diversity and the opportunities. And I guess if you looked out now, you have to say it’s some of the high-tech industry. Not so much media or such, but organizations like Apple or Samsung – because of the way technology is changing, and changing people’s lives. Some sort of a high-tech industry, I think, where you really can start making products that no one has ever thought of, and maybe more for the good of the world, rather than for profit. Some of like [what] they’re doing in healthcare, stuff like that is truly amazing.

Do you consider yourself a “techie”?

I see myself as absolutely not a techie. I

The foreFRont team with David Keen

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Front Row

David Keen: Up Close and Personal

Lisse Anne Bertumen PHOTOS Sey Torres

am ignorant in a way. My IT support desk is called Didi. And anything after than the basic keystrokes, I call Didi. My wife and my children always poke fun at me when I struggle with my iPad at home. Any new app is normally beyond me.

Since you’re totally not a techie guy and your only support system is Didi, and you have taken a career in the banking industry, what lesson would you not have learned in banking?

I think I wouldn’t say what I would have not done, but I would say it’s that, when I got in trouble, it’s by being complacent and taking things for granted. I think that’s probably the biggest lesson. I don’t think I have been complacent, but whenever I have, then I tend to get in trouble. So I think that’s the biggest thing that I have to

constantly think about. Don’t be complacent, don’t make assumptions, and you know, don’t take life for granted.

When you were a kid, have you tried skipping classes to play outside? Which class was that?

Yes. I know that I went for football tryout, and the football tryout started four o’clock, and it’s almost sunset in London, so I had to skip almost a whole afternoon.

There were several classes?

Only on one occasion.

Aside from that, you never repeated that?

I don’t think so.

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Did you make the cut (for the team)?

No.

Was it worth it?

Yes! It was great experience.

So, let’s go a little bit fartherinto your interests. What’s your favorite movie?

I probably think the Godfather series, Godfather 1, 2 and 3.

What’s in the movie that makes you like it?

I think it’s quite hard, cutting-edge and based on reality. I’m not a big fan of Batman, but equally, I like some action in there and the good storyline. So I like a film which has good actors, which the Godfather did have, and a good storyline. I do quite like to see the other side of the story, like the action and the thrillers, as opposed to romance, comedies, and all that. So actually, a thriller with a good storyline and good actors and a bit of violence, I like that.

If you were a movie actor, what kind of role would you like to play?

I like to play the good guy in a gangster movie that gets the girl in the end.

If there is anything that you would like to change about yourself, like a quality

or a trait, what would it be?

Sometimes, I think I’d like to be more flexible, because sometimes, I’m not flexible enough.

Which Filipino restaurant do you like?

I like Zuni in Greenbelt. Sala Bistro is also nice. And I like Abé. That’s good.

Have you tried Antonio’s in Tagaytay?

Yes. That’s lovely. That’s probably the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been to.

What’s a weekend like for David Keen?

If we’re not going away anyway, it’s a bit of a lie-in on Saturday. Probably do a trip to the gym, bike-riding with my wife. I like to play golf, but I play very rarely. Maybe an ideal weekend would be a nice lie-in, get up in the morning, read my book outside for a bit, go to the gym, then go out for a meal with my wife or with my friends, and then Sunday, play golf. But what I tend to do is get up late Saturday, go out late Saturday, get up late Sunday, or something like that. Then do some reading to catch up.

How late is waking up late for you?

10 o’clock would definitely be a lie-in.

What kind of books do you read?

War, and the Asia Pacific history.

Aside from playing golf, reading books, going to the gym, what are your hobbies?

I am into sports, primarily. I was a soccer and rugby player when I was younger. I do like history as well. I want to try to get into photography. I also like cycling a lot.

In three sentences, how would you explain your work to an 8-year old kid?

I work for a bank. I help to ensure that the support and control is in good order. Oh, bloody. Can I get back to you on that? It’s such a wimp answer, isn’t it?

We heard your wife wants you to learn how to dance.

Yes. That’s true. Everybody knows this: I’m a terrible singer, I’m complete tone-deaf, and I have two left feet. I’d like to learn how to sing and dance, and playing a musical instrument would be fantastic. I do keep saying I’ll have voice lessons. Forget dancing. I must learn how to sing one good song well, mustn't I? And then one day, I’ll stand up and sing in the year-end. But maybe not this December, but next December.

Do you have any message for the whole FR community, both Manila and Mumbai?

Enjoy your work. Enjoy working together. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Always try to help out each other whenever you can. Generally, things will work out and your career will look out for itself.

This goes to show that at the end of the day, David Keen is just like one of us –may always be busy with work and a lot of things, but can surely still have time to share a laugh or two.

I have murder books, the-more-people-dead-the-better books. I like the American detectives. I do like modern, like Michael Connelly, the LA detectives.

But I do like the classic detectives like Sherlock Holmes. I’m also reading The Last of the Mohicans. I like historical books as well. I’m really interested in history like the 2nd World

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Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, I am in an SME role in FR with focus on HO reporting. I have been with the Bank for more than 12 years with stages in Frankfurt, New York and Mumbai and always in Finance. Roles included Budgeting/Forecasting and Actual reporting. When I joined in 2000 the Bank went through major changes developing a strong Investment Banking. I was in a team which had developed the QRM reporting for the Group Board these days. [There are] many any changes we are facing now again.

What’s a typical day like for you?

After breakfast at home, arriving office at

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Front Row

A Dialogue with Ray Naussedat

Prajwala Poojary PHOTOS Prajwala Poojary

The office, a normal work day can start with a friendly “Hello” to my colleagues. Good team spirit is most important and the base for a successful team and as an individual. For meetings, I really try to be prepared and have something to offer from my side. I intend to have an inside view on the projects I am working on.

How has it been going for you? What is the biggest challenge you face on your job?

After a very successful year 2011 for the team and as an individual, I would say it became more challenging in 2012. I have been transferred into a new SME role. Not having a direct reporting team anymore, it is sometimes challenging to engage people for projects and initiatives– now with the much wider scope of entire FR. But, I am learning on it and, on the other hand, it opens opportunities to interact with different teams and levels and I can pursue my own ideas to interesting projects.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Generally, as a person, I am quite happy where I am now. The way wasn’t always easy, eventually one needs to have the right environment or frame to achieve [that]. But it’s an all-exciting journey. And professionally, DB specifically had

provided many opportunities through the years.

Describe a major challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

From all the challenges, what I learnt is that reflection is needed to learn from your mistakes and to know where you come from. But in the same way, it is important to move on, being optimistic.

Tell us about your big break and who gave it you.

First to mention, a teacher in Math and Physics in an elementary school, who encouraged me and convinced my family [for me] to pursue further higher education to achieve the German “Abitur”. So I went to a professional gymnasium – a dual system in these days – where you could achieve the “Abitur” and a vocational degree, which I have in Civil Engineering. Then the “Abitur” opened the door to a study in a University. And I was the first of the family in that part of the country.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Failures probably go along with the challenges. I mentioned before that the environment, society and family, have an influence for success. Eventually, one has the skills to be successful. But

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assertiveness was not something I always had. That, being developed as part my identity, had made me more successful together with the right skill-set.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Well, after 6 years in New York, going to India instead of going back to Germany was a big impact. As work is concerned, luckily not tough at all, with all the nice colleagues here! Though for my personal life, it was tough in the beginning.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

I was born in former East Germany. So when the “wall” came down, that opened the opportunities I am now enjoying. On the negative side, the divorce of my parents when I was 5 years old, sickness in my family and the early decease of my father - eventually to deal with it developed some strength too. At least I see it so today.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Well, the journey in DB, in particular, that I am almost able to assimilate in 3 different countries and cultures, that makes me a little bit proud.

You lived in Mumbai for 3 years. Howwas the experience?

It is overall a very good experience. Happily, it was so easy to integrate in the team when I came and [I am] still crushed [because] transportation and infrastructure is quite a challenge in Mumbai. Also, I would like to see better access to a green place for long runs or walks.

Tell us a little bit about your reading

habits.

Oh, just a little bit then, quite early pre-teenager age, I have read all Jules Verne adventure novels, you could so easily dream and see these pictures – being in a balloon over Africa, travelling to the moon, the center of the earth or in 80 days around the world. Later, I had some “revolutionary” phases so I read Michael Bulgakow, Hermann Hesse or DjingisAitmatov. Later, I, eventually, was able to read original English, I started with the great American novels like John Steinbeck or Ernest Hemingway. Really, it’s the classics that I like, and also contemporary fiction. But German philosophers like Emanuel Kant are not so easy readings. I also read specialist literature, economics, history or science.

Please share some quotes from the books that are very meaningful for you?

Maybe not from a book, but Peter Ustinov once said “Someone is not getting old, when it physically starts to hurt here and there, but you get old when you lose your curiosity”. There is a lot of truth in it. I think it means lifelong learning is a gift. I am in awe for people who have a lifelong passion for their doings. It really can be anybody, not only scientist or artists.

What do you love to do in your spare time?

I am learning playing the guitar. I read a lot and I run, swim and walk. I love to meet friends, doing activities together. I like watching movies.

How did mentors influence your life?

I would say family, teacher, trainer and manager influenced my life.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

One manager once told me: First, assertiveness is to come as basis for any achievement. It was the other way around for me, until then, I always intended to achieve first to be confident and proud. I know today, he was right and wanted the best for me. It’s basically forming your identity which defines you and makes you more successful.

An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar. In the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

I think this is related that, as a mentor and leader, you should act with integrity and live the values. You will be observed as a leader and your doings should be real and transparent. If a team recognizes this and trusts you, you don’t need to lead. The team will follow the leader and helping and stepping in for each other.

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She sings. She loves reading books. She is an F1 fan. Certainly, not many of the people in the Financial Reporting group, or DKS as a whole, are privy to this information about this woman.

With her very busy schedule, the foreFRont team was fortunate enough to have the chance to sit down with LenelleTrisia Rosete, as she shares more of herself than she normally does.

On work

Lenelle has been with DKS for the past seven (7) years, establishing herself and rising up in the ranks. She now heads the Financial Reporting Group’s Reference Data, Exceptions Management and, just recently, has been identified as the lead for SPERT (Special Purpose Entities, Group Risk Controlling and Corporate Taxation). On top of that, she has taken the lead role for FR-Manila Administration.

With such tenure in the bank, it was interesting to find out what she would rename DKS to, if given the chance. In her opinion though, the reality is, DKS is a service-provider and its name, as is, is already very fitting considering the industry it is in. She adds that the company is not the typical service center – the composition of the processes is unique. Others have it too but theirs is probably a lot simpler than DKS’.

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The Woman Behind the Name

Maria Celeste Torres PHOTO Arman Joseph Arreglado

Throughout her successful career, one of the most important lines she has tried to live by is: If it’s a job worth doing, then do it well. If you can’t do it well, find something else. She shares this to her team to motivate them to do their best in their work.

Lenelle also highlights the importance of communication in this line of work. According to her, communication is only as good as the reaction you get. This does not necessarily mean to simply get the other person to agree with you, rather, it is being able to make the other person understand you.

When asked what she would most likely be doing if she weren’t in Finance, Lenellethinks she sees herself teaching. In fact, this would probably be in her bucket list. She acknowledges the fact that teaching is not necessarily a ‘money-making’ career, but she would love to do it nonetheless, as her way of giving back to the community.

On her life

With all the accomplishments and all the responsibilities on her shoulders, it is but natural to know what inspires the current FR-Manila Lead to keep going. She shares that her family is what inspires her. Throughout her career, she has learned how to separate her work life with her

personal life. And that is the most important things she has done to achieve work-life balance.

Suffice to say, when asked who the love of her life is, it is her family. With everything she has going for her at work, it is a nice retreat to spend time with her family. They are her motivation to do her best in everything she does. Not to mention, she has a very cute and adorable 4-year old niece, who has absolutely won her affection. This is very evident with her phone’s album filled with photos of the little girl.

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During weekends, she is naturally a homebody, being the introvert that she is. Having no maid or a driver to do things for her, she runs errands and does her own chores. She loves to read books and as she puts it, she can stay inside her room and read all day. Wondering what kind of books she reads? Lenelle prefers the more carefree kind of books. She has read the Twilight and Harry Potter series among others.

One of her greatest passions is singing. Lenelle has always been a choir member since she was a child. When she and her friends realized that they were either too young or a bit more of age than the choirs they already have in their church, they decided to start their own group. No matter how busy she is with her duties at work, she manages to squeeze in time to practice with them, especially when they have upcoming engagements. In a world where everything has been turned to pop, their group has gone beyond the ordinary choral or acapella songs.

Aside from singing, she took on badminton and swimming as well when she was younger. However, no matter how much she loves the water, it seemed that she and the water were not a good combination. Back then, she remembers

getting ill soon after swimming, hence, she decided to not go on further that path.

A big F1 fan, Lenelle spent her most recent MTA on a trip with her family during the F1 season in Singapore. They went all the way, from buying front-seat tickets to the event to booking a hotel room with a fantastic view of the race course, to be able to enjoy every minute of it.

Just like everyone else, she also has pet peeves. Those who know her would say that she does not take a liking to people who take the long and winding road. She prefers people to be straightforward and simply just be honest.

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regrets, it is basically a sad life.

With everything she has achieved in her life, it is interesting to find out what else Lenelle wants to do. She says that her bucket list started twenty (20) years ago. At this point in her life, there is not much more she really wants to achieve. Her work has allowed her to travel to different places but she would like to do more, especially with her family. Above all else, she simply wants to live a good and healthy life.

Needless to say, Lenelle lives her life without regrets. She acknowledges that things happen for a reason. Looking back in her life, she is very much satisfied with how she has lived it, with all the bumps along the way. Her belief is, if somebody lives his/her life with


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FoRmation

Resiliency Across the Miles

Marian Teresa Cruz and Alvin Jachin Leong

The resiliency plan, which was launched in 2011, beginning with a cautious approach with risk assessments made to identify a suitable location for testing. During the initial run, the US and Germany were selected as the pilot locations in 2012. Resiliency is defined as the ability to recover business by transferring work. A recovery strategy plan is necessary to ensure business continuity in times of crisis. This is done by transferring of work, particularly critical processes across borders and enabling different people to perform the work.

Mid-September this year, 12 people from PSC Manila flew to Mumbai as part of the initial stage of the Cross Border Resiliency Strategy and Plan. Resiliency is a top priority for DB, for despite the travel ban earlier this year, this initiative pushed through. Representatives from Financial Reporting (FR) across different teams from Special Purpose Entity, Resiliency Head Office Reporting, Resiliency Inter Unit Clearing, and Reference Data were sent to Mumbai for a 28 day assignment. Knowledge transfers for identified complicated tasks were done through remote and face to face trainings. The Mumbai team gave a very warm welcome to the Manila representatives cultivating a supportive environment. Despite the limited time, as they had to make do with the 28 days, everything was pre-planned to focus on the highly complicated tasks. Clear planning was evident, in fact before

rolling this out there was a sink up calibration and all bases were covered. Overall, this is a highly orchestrated project poised for completion.

Currently there are four representatives from Mumbai, who are here from October 20 to November 10 for testing and parallel run. This is to ensure a more resilient standing for Mumbai and Manila that if anything should happen, both sides will still be able to perform at par.

This is a multi-faced approach seen to run from 2012 to 2014. This year is the pilot year for FR, specifically for FB, GBG, and AAA. By year end the plan for 2012 will come to a full circle. The project aims to execute the plan as well in EMEA and APAC for the next year. The last stage of completion would be in London, where the Book of work and systems will be put to test and maintained.

This strategy is essential in case of outages so that there would be a capacity to have others also perform the work through cross-training. The importance of this is to ensure business continuity and is a form of reassurance, working as one team. This will happen through advance planning, analysis and testing to manage risk as well as business and technical disaster recovery.

Through the collaboration of FR Manila and Mumbai team, with the help of the PMO Cross Border Resiliency Team,

The FR Manila IUC-Resiliency team in Mumbai

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PHOTO Mao Limguangco

spearheaded by Anuj-S Gupta (VP head), Earl Pineda and Jogesh-S Prajapati, we see ourselves equipped to sustain our banking operations with ease.


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FoRmation

Finance Induction: Welcoming the New Breed of FRMaria Celeste Torres PHOTO JC Laset

June 20, 2012 marked the pilot launch of the first Finance Induction session. Spearheaded by the Learning and Development team of the Finance COO group, the half-day sessions aim to provide new joiners with an overview of the Group Finance Mission, Vision and Culture and how the Finance PSC fits into the bigger picture. Held every two months, the sessions are facilitated by the Workstream heads, who take time away from their demanding schedules to help the newly-onboarded Finance employees appreciate their new roles and responsibilities in the Bank.

The initiative came about when the COO-L&D team saw that the existing induction programs did not cover topics specific to Group Finance and PSC Finance. The session was patterned after Mumbai’s Finance Induction program, which has been well-received by the workstreamsand their new joiners. Aside from the main session facilitated by the Workstreamheads, the program also includes an activity led by a Culture Ambassador and a session covering the COO functions, particularly Risk & Control and PSC Governance.

The session also embarks upon a quick walkthrough of each Finance workstream, which was positively received by the participants; “I learned how the different workstreams and processes are connected to each other, as well as how

the different businesses of the Bank relate to each other. It also gave us a more detailed knowledge about what exactly the COO group does.” says one of the participants.

“It is better to know and understand, not just your own task, but the entire flow of the process, considering intervention of other process-owners. This will help us identify how we impact others and determine how we could inject or contribute process improvements/ enhancements as well.” states another participant.

Certainly, for a leading global bank, Deutsche has one of the most diverse range of products and services. For its people working in the back office, most

and the people working in it honest in terms of infrastructural spending/costs. As a result, I help in maximizing total shareholders return.”

The Finance Induction aims to give newcomers a deeper understanding of the interconnectivity of the Bank’s products, processes and workstreams to help them appreciate the roles and responsibilities delegated to them.

For more information regarding the Finance Induction session, please feel free to approach JC Laset or FionnaCasillan of the COO-L&D team.

especially the new joiners, this information can be overwhelming. Hence, recognizing how one’s work impacts others’ and how one fits into the bigger picture is of utmost importance, as attested by another participant; “As a member of the Finance Group, I am not just a processor working on the backend preparing one of the management reports. By doing my job religiously, I keep DB

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The COO-L&D Team: JC Laset and Fionna Casillan


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FoRmation

dbEase – Excel Automation Framework

Noopur Jain PHOTO Noopur Jain

The Excel Automation Framework is designed to automate the tasks performed repeatedly using Microsoft Excel. This is an initiative driven by the Change Engagement Team - FR Mumbai.

Excel functions like VLOOKUP, PIVOT, UPDATE and COPY, which are being used extensively for processing and preparation of various financial reports, have been automated in this project. Previously, teams faced multiple challenges – errors in calculation and extensive processing time (including waiting time) – when using these functions for processing voluminous Excel data.

DbEase framework was thus created to address these issues and achieve process efficiency by empowering the end user to configure easy-to-do manual tasks using simple Excel instructions to achieve quick and accurate results.

The dbEASE provides a framework resulting in the following benefits: (1) perform functions easily in Excel like vlookup, pivot, formulas, etc.; (2) user-defined processing instructions; (3) reduce IT resource dependency for carrying out automation; (4) result to drastic time savings by reducing tedious manual tasks.

Automation Champions: RameshJayaraman, Abhishek Jain, Nisha Jain,

Noopur Jain, Manasvi Sawant, ShubhadaSawant, Divyesh Vaghani, Rajeev Tuli,

Dhaval Bhojani, Milan Zaveri

Various Change Champions were identified and trained from each workstream to enable them to preare the configuration files to reach the greater mass.

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Process NameManual

Effort (Hrs)Effort after

automation (Hrs) StatusIUC Recon tool - Global IUC Standardization Project TBC - Build Completed - Under UAT

Pending Settlements - Set 15 4.5 - Build Completed - Under UAT

Consolidated Balance Sheet (CBS) 6 - Build Completed - Under UAT

IUC base file preparation - Channel Islands 10 1 Build Completed - Under UATIUC base file preparation - Spain 18 - Build under developmentReporting Process - Channel Islands 4 - Build under developmentData analysis Prepayments PT 3025 10 1 In ProductionData analysis Prepayments Mortgages 3024 7 0.75 In ProductionException BW data 3 - PipelineABS & Financial Statements 14 - PipelineOff Balance Sheet process 8 - PipelineDetailed Reconciliation 14 - PipelineOff Balance Sheet process 30 - Pipeline

Italy HO Process- CAT-2 3.5 0.5 Pipeline

Broker Dealer / Over Borrows 2.5 - PipelineBW Data processing 10 - PipelineFX Process 6 - PipelineMRP Process 5 - PipelineHO Reporting Process 2 - Pipeline

Commissions & Interests - Process Efficiency 44 - Pipeline

Rec Pay 24 - Pipeline

SNB Reporting 16 - Pipeline

FX Process - SWISS 5 hours daily - PipelineiCRES- France 4 - PipelineBEN Accrual Posting 6 3 Pipeline

DTTC monthly PL and BS and DBIT Singapore SAP template 6 1.5 Pipeline

H.O Reporting – IUC, CAT-1 and BASTA process- EMEA- Russia/ Nordics. 59 - Pipeline

A table showing the estimated effort savings for the automated processes under dbEase

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FoRmation

IFRS Change: IFRS 13 Fair Value MeasurementAshish Ghag

Scope

The IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) has issued a new standard replacing the current rules for fair value measurement : IFRS 13 - Fair Value Measurement.

IFRS 13 requires numerous disclosure requirements relating to fair value measurement. The effective date of IFRS 13 measurement requirements is the 1st of January 2013, and is to be applied prospectively. However, comparative financial statements will not be required to be restated.

Meaning

Fair value is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction in the principal (or most advantageous) market at the measurement date under current market conditions (i.e., an exit price) regardless of whether that price is directly observable or estimated using another valuation technique.

If an asset or a liability measured at fair value has a bid price and an ask price, the price within the bid-ask spread that is most representative of fair value in the circumstances shall be used to measure fair value.

As per the IFRS 13 Fair Value Measurement, those assets and liabilities

where IFRS requires or permits a fair value measurement or disclosure, both at initial recognition as well as subsequent measurement, include, but are not limited to:

financial assets and liabilities held at fair value through profit and loss (i.e. trading and fair value option);

financial assets and liabilities held at fair value through equity (i.e., available-for-sale assets);

initial recognition of amortized cost financial instruments such as loans and receivables;

non-financial assets or liabilities that require recurring fair value measurements such as commodities inventory held by a DB commodities broker-trader under IAS 2;

other assets and liabilities that require fair value measurements on a non-recurring basis including, assets and liabilities recognized in a business combination at fair value at the date of acquisition or assets or disposal groups held for sale under IFRS 5

Additionally, IFRS 13 increases the frequency of the fair value measurement disclosures from annually to quarterly (except for the disclosures regarding instruments not held at fair value).

Any changes to the fair value measurement of assets and liabilities held at fair value through P&L on the date of transition due to adoption of IFRS 13 will be recorded into P&L on 1 January 2013 (not retained earnings).

For AFS instruments any change in fair value upon adoption of IFRS 13 will be posted to OCI (unless the instrument is impaired).

For instruments where fair value is required on initial recognition but not subsequently there will be no transition adjustment.

Likewise, loans and receivables which are held at amortized cost will not have an adjustment at transition even where the fair value under IFRS 13 is different to that recorded at initial recognition of the acquired/originated loan because the instruments are not held at fair value at 1 January 2013.

Measurement

IFRS 13 seeks to increase consistency and comparability in fair value measurements and related disclosures through a 'fair value hierarchy'. The hierarchy categorizes the inputs used in valuation techniques into three levels, giving the highest priority to (unadjusted) quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities and the lowest

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priority to unobservable inputs.

Level 1 Inputs: Quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the reporting entity can access at the measurement date

Level 2 Inputs: Inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly.

Level 3 Inputs: Unobservable inputs for the asset or liability.

New or Amended Disclosure Requirements in IFRS 13

IFRS 13 requires extensive disclosure requirements that go above and beyond those already required under IFRS 7. Almost all of the fair value measurement disclosures become quarterly reporting requirements.

The following disclosure requirements are either new or significantly expanded under IFRS 13, and are required for assets and

liabilities held at the reporting date that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis, unless otherwise noted:

Transfers between level 1 and 2: the amounts of any transfers between Level 1 and Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy, the reasons for those transfers and the entity’s policy for determining when transfers between levels are deemed to have occurred.

Quantitative disclosure about unobservable parameters: for recurring and non-recurring fair value measurements within Level 2 and Level 3, a description of the valuation techniques and the inputs used in the fair value measurements..

Change to P&L on level 3: The amount of total gains or losses for Level 3 instruments included in the profit or loss that is attributable to the change in unrealized gains or losses related to those assets held at the end of the reporting period, and the line item in profit or loss in

which those unrealized gains or losses are recognized.

Additional sensitivity analysis on level 3: For Level 3 instruments, a narrative description of the sensitivity of the fair value measurements to changes in unobservable inputs if a change in those inputs to a different amount might result in a significantly higher or lower fair value measurement. If there are interrelationships between those inputs and other unobservable inputs, the entity shall provide a description of those interrelationships and of how they might magnify or mitigate the effect of changes in the unobservable inputs on the fair value measurement.

Fair value hierarchy for amortized cost instruments: For each class of financial assets and liabilities not measured at fair value, but for which the fair value is disclosed, an entity shall disclose the level of the fair value hierarchy within which the fair value measurements are categorized.

Form No. Form Name 2012

Frequency2013

Frequency2012 Due

Date2013 Due

Date2012 Input Due Date

2013 Input Due Date

2971Financial instruments that are measured at Fair Value on a recurring basis

Quarterly Quarterly BD11 BD09 BD9 BD7

337

Asset/Liabilities-fair value based on valuation technique with unobservable parameters (level 3)

Quarterly Quarterly BD11 BD09 BD9 BD7

376 Level 3 Asset/ Liability Rollforward

Quarterly from Q1 2011 Quarterly BD16 BD09 BD14 BD7

377Total gains/losses on L3 assets/liabilities recog. in PL for the period

Annual Quarterly BD20 BD09 BD18 BD7

378 Sensitivity analysis on level 3 financial assets and liabilities Annual Quarterly BD20 BD09 BD18 BD7

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Issue 4

FoRmation

A New Era of Easy Knowledge-Sharing: dbWikiAlvin Jachin Leong

Does Wikipedia ring a bell? Wikipedia, or Wiki as some would call it, is an internet encyclopedia famous for giving definitions to almost every word that a user can throw in. This cradle of information boasts of its wide range of online articles, wherein millions of these articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers all around the globe. This site allows users to share inputs regarding a certain topic by granting them access to manage and edit the articles themselves.

Now, Wiki has been adapted and given a DB touch! Introducing dbWiki!

dbWiki is a platform intended for informal sharing of knowledge within Deutsche Bank. Simply put, it is an internal Wikipedia for everyone in the Bank. Beyond being just a storehouse of facts like most search engines, dbWiki offers

everyone in DB the opportunity to share DB-related information in an easy and quick way. As opposed to the regular message driven intranet sites staged with announcements, news and events, dbWIkicultivates a knowledge driven communication showcasing encyclopediccontents, contextualization, and sharing of experiences.

Simply log-in and find your desired article. The articles can be edited by just clicking on “Edit”. After editing, just simply save the page! dbWiki allows its users the ability to format texts and upload pictures and tables while editing articles. As added function, users may also block an article so that others will not be able to see it. Users may also choose to watch and monitor created articles by enabling email notifications once changes are made to it.

dbWiki Golden Rules (writing/editing)

Do’s

Encyclopaedic writing style

Knowledge of general interest Abbreviations, help lines, How to’s, FAQs etc.

Information on project/team/activity

Categories/Structured content

Don’ts

No sensitive, critical contents (personal, protected, HR data)

No business critical information and documents (Information against Chinese walls, business data, dynamic business forms, etc.)

No message driven formal communication (news, organizational charts, official announcements)

No content from/for restricted access

dbWiki has paved the way for a new era of easy knowledge sharing. May we all learn to embrace such opportunity to build our own storehouse of information! Go ahead and make the first step by sharing what you know now!

Reference:http://dbwiki.intranet.db.com/display.php?dir=i

mages/wiki&file=dbWiki_introduction_en.pdf

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Last June 29, Special Purpose Entities (SPE) members sat down, spoke, and listened to each others’ successes, challenges, and goals in their first Interactive Session at the 12F Pantry.

During the session, each sub-team, through the supervisors, discussed about where they are, where they are going, and the challenges they are facing in terms of People, Process, and Connectivity. Each supervisor also talked about his/her team’s best practices.

For instance, in the Repack and Mortgages business, Maricar Sia shared that they have established an English-speaking rule during team meetings. Meanwhile, in the Equity-Managed Funds piece, Dennis Edillo and his team are all actively engaged in CTB initiatives.

Some team members also talked about their personal successes and challenges during the year. Jonna Dejelo of Credit Utilities shared that the achievement that she was proud of was overcoming the challenge of performing 2 FTE’s during the May ME, since her colleague LisseBertumen was involved in the three-week Graduate Induction Program. On the other hand, Rosylyn Ramirez of Structured Capital Markets told about being able to cope with the challenge of being a new member of the team.

In an interview with ForeFRont, SPE team lead Christian Macayan shared that they set up the Interactive Session mainly to give direction for the team – to make sure that everyone knows where they are now. It also aims to address the challenges that the team is facing, and to leverage from one another, especially on issue-solving and resiliency.

Christian recounted, “When I came in February, the sub-teams are working independently. There’s no engagement between sub-teams. Much like a silo-type [group]. There was no sense of a single team direction. We need to break down silos, and make sure the teams are high performing, and everybody is on the same page.” Thus, the SPE Interactive Session came to life.

“It is like a townhall,” described Christian, “but in a townhall, management would present, then they would give some time for questions. I want to create an environment wherein you’re free to speak your mind, where everybody receives feedback right away. Most people in SPE are young, so they might want it to be more fun and entertaining, to make sure it sticks on their minds. The mindset is that it’s serious, but interactive and engaging.”

When asked if there will be another Interactive Session, Christian said that they will hold it at a quarterly or trimester frequency.

Issue 4

SPE Breaks Down Silos with first Interactive SessionLisse Anne Bertumen

FoRmation

The SPE family

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Issue 4

FoRmation

Big Data Technology

Vinod Kavugoli

We all have seen email from DBOI Finance Communications on Stride –another step forward , Stride is the technology based on Big Data technology; the same that is used by Facebook and Twitter.

Let’s take a deeper look into Big Data Technology to gain a better understanding of it.

March 2012: OBAMA ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS “BIG DATA” INITIATIVE –Announces $200 Million in New R&D Investments

Big data is the newest buzz word in the industry. Executives and information technology experts are all dropped off from cloud computing buzz and hopped into the big data band wagon. Generally, the excitement and buzz in market leads into a misconception of a new idea and takes few iterations before the key concept of new idea is widely understood.

Is Big Data a new concept?

No. The concept has been there for four decades and it has been named as enterprise data warehouse (EDW) and the focus of EDW is primarily on the internal structured data.

The objective of this article is to bring the key concept of big data by comparing it with enterprise data warehouse.

The simplest view of a data warehouse isto take all the operational data to one place as single point of truth for the organization and all the combination of analytical reports are generated out of it. A typical enterprise data warehouse data flow is given in the figure above. If EDW is already in existence, what is big data and why this big data?

What is it?

Big Data is a collection of internal and external information. Differentiating data will be modeled and derived when the product, service, consumer & partner trends are studied and understood. The consumer, partner, product and economical data is unstructured in uncharted territory. A massive data set in uncharted territory includes both internal, external structured and unstructured data. The massive data set is called big data.

The following diagrams discusses how Big Data Technology will affect organizational data

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Hadoop, HDFS, Avro, MapReduce, Zoo Keeper, Pig, Chukwa, Hive, HBase,RProgramming make the big data concept practical. Emergence of massive unstructured data through social media , utilization of it for daily activities and availability of technologies led into the bigdata now.

All of the core technologies for Bigdata are open source tools. With minimum hiccups during the Easter weekend, Hadoop and MapReduce were successfully installed, configured and functional in Ubuntu Linux runing on Virtual Box on the host OS Windows 7.

There are lots of commercialized version and open source tool available to run an enterprise big data infrastructure.

Recently the McKinsey Global Institute put forth the following projection about Big Data and the impact on corporations.

“Over time, we believe big data may well become a new type of corporate asset that will cut across business units and function much as a powerful brand does, representing a key basis for competition. If that’s right, companies need to start thinking in earnest about whether they are

organized to exploit big data’s potential and to manage the threats it can pose. Success will demand not only new skills but also new perspectives on how the era of big data could evolve—the widening circle of management practices it may affect and the foundation it represents for new, potentially disruptive business models.” - McKinsey Global Institute

The article addresses five business strategy and tactical questions. continuous improvement’.

1. What happens in a world of radical transparency, with data widely available?

2. If you could test all of your decisions, how would that change the way you compete?

3. How would your business change if you used big data for widespread, real-time customization?

4. How can big data augment or even replace management?

5. Could you create a new business model based on data?

Ultimately each corporation’s IT group must work alongside with their internal business customers to maximize the possibilities of Big Data. The pressure to evolve is becoming enormous. For IT professionals, the challenge is to get out in front of the business with the understanding that without preparedness, costly and unproductive data silos will be created. Now is the time to learn and lead.

Why is it now?

A need arose for big data with emergence of social media and other unstructured data widely used both internally and externally in an organization. The unstructured data includes the customer status updates in Facebook, Twitter, Youtube video upload, picture upload from a smart phone and voice assistance like Siri. The behavior of consumer, end-user actual experience, product acceptance & adoption are viral, unstructured and paradoxical. With rapid adoption and growth in mobile technology- the consumer interaction, purchasing habits, product reviews are done viral. Simplified approach for the consumer to engage in an experience increased the complexity of analysis from a service provider perspective.

An unsatisfied customer does not call “1-800-sup-port” number any more to file a complaint. They tweet, or update in their Facebook status about their experience. The companies trying to measure the customer satisfication by analysing the internal customer complaint database sure will miss the reality. Traditional and trivial data analytics are not good enough anymore. Availability of technologies like

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Issue 4

FoRmation

Passion and Dedication Amidst Crisis: The FR-Manila StoryLisse Anne Bertumen

The heavy downpour may have washed away the Metro, but not the passion to perform of Financial Reporting.

The frequent heavy rainfall brought by the southwest monsoon winds (habagat in Tagalog) last August 06-10, coincided with critical month-end deliverables of the workstream. As a result, a lot of people were not able to come to work, undermanning most, if not all of, the FR sub-workstream teams.

As Marian Cruz of NCT put it, “It felt like the office was deserted and only three other people from the team made it in… at one point, we looked out the window and felt like it was already evening even though it was still early in the day.”

With the unexpected test of resiliency, Pam Lumagui of London HO Reporting recalls, “At the height of the storm, the IUC team was down by 5 members, with only 3 members present. Rhea Gonzales, EG Lubo and JM Lim were stuck in the office, unable to go home until T+8. Mao Limguangco tried to go home but midway, was forced to stay in a motel for 2 days. When the waters have subsided a bit, Mao hitched a ride on a garbage truck to go back to the office to catch up on his deliverables. These people, including Aileen Laforteza, Abi Serna, Sheryl Lagundino, Charo Bino, Gee Nolasco, Amira Mediodia, who were able to come in earlier than the rest, provided back-up

support to the other members of the team who cannot make it to the office until T+8. On T+8, the team worked until the wee hours of the morning to make up for lost time. The team pulled it together, and by T+9, the team was able to submit all deliverables due.”

For some who were not able to go home on Monday evening because roads leading to their homes were impassable, they decided to go to a colleague’s apartment in nearby unaffected area to eat breakfast, bathe, and have a change of clothes. This was experienced by yours truly and teammates Maricar Sia, MeannLibao, and Brenda Bendanillo. Brenda’s hospitality when we were in her Taguigapartment made us feel safe and hopeful that eventually, things will turn out for the better.

Some insisted on coming to work by wading through murky waters or balancing through make shift rafts and government trucks just to get to the office, as Tess Fuentes-Villaluna of SPE, GRC &Tax shares. At the height of flooding in their own homes, some team members chose to go to the BCP site to serve their deliverables. She adds, “Perhaps most impactful for me is that their leads who could not get out of their homes (as roads and their own homes were submerged) could not get to office and coordinated from home.”

With a lot of individuals across teams going through similar experiences of difficulty in coming to work and going home, a number of onshore counterparts have extended their best wishes for them and their families. In particular, ChiragShah of DBOI-Delaware Reporting shared a prayer for strength, hope and faith, with a line saying, “At the point where hope would otherwise become hopelessness, it becomes faith.” In addition, Tamaki Kadoof DSI Japan even texted Regina Dilag of Branch Reporting APAC for a safe trip to the office.

On the other hand, other counterparts have expressed their gratitude and admiration. To quote Pasquale Guerreraof Finance-Australia, “The professional attitude, resilience and great communication have been greatly admired here.” On a similar note, Yasushi Watanabe of FR Japan says, “We had no issue for month-end closing because of your effort and excellent crisis management and back-up plan. It was impressive.”

In the Treasury team, their onshore partners in Singapore, London, and Frankfurt were very understanding and cooperative to provide support for the critical tasks during that day. As JM Broncate put it, which is also true for the rest of FR, “What worked is the “one-team” spirit shown by the team, offshore and onshore.”

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Issue 4

Forging Relations

The Ganesh Chaturthi Festival

Kartik Vanzara and Anita Negi PHOTOS: Various – see credits

Traditional stories tell that Lord Ganesha(or Ganapati meaning "Lord isha or pati of Shiva's hosts gana) was created by goddess Parvati, consort of Lord Shiva. Parvati created Ganesha out of sandalwood paste that she used for her bath and breathed life into the figure. She then set him to stand guard at her door while she bathed. However, while she bathed, Lord Shiva returned and as Ganesha didn't know him, he didn't allow him to enter. Lord Shiva became enraged and severed the head of the child and entered his house. After realizing that he had beheaded his own son, Lord Shiva fixed the head of an elephant (in some versions, Airavata, the vehicle of the god Indra) in place of Ganesha's head. In this way, Lord Ganesha came to be depicted as the elephant-headed God.

Lalbaughcha Raja (2011) Ganesha image worshipped in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is the

most visited Ganesha Mandal in Mumbai

Immersing Ganesha in a river symbolizing a ritual to see off Lord in his journey taking away the misfortunes of the devotees

Celebrating the festival in DBOIA street celebration for the GaneshFestival

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Two different teams, thousands of miles apart, working as one.

The last quarter of 2011 marked the birth of FRontline, the centralized Financial Reporting (FR) communications team, covering Mumbai and Manila’s news and events. Aiming to promote people engagement and awareness within FR, the FRontline team partners with the different DKS and FR teams to ensure that important news and events are cascaded to and from the Financial Reporting group.

The FRontline team created three sub-teams, all working together to achieve its mission, ‘to be the catalyst of change through promoting awareness, creating the culture of teamwork, work-life balance, fun in the workplace and drive for

continuous improvement’.

Being at the foreFRont.

With the desire to highlight important FR news and activities, and to advance stronger cultural awareness for Manila and Mumbai, a collaborative newsletter, foreFRont, is published on a quarterly basis. Launched in the last quarter of 2011, its first release essentially prompted the conceptualization of the bigger initiative, now known as FRontline. Starting off with a small group of contributors, the newsletter’s editorial staff, which is comprised of individuals from both FR Mumbai and Manila, has grown much bigger, working closely together to deliver its quarterly release to the FR community. The newsletter embarks upon a wide range of topics for

each release – from organization-centric news, to covering the most interesting individuals in FR, to articles that highlight the different cultures of Manila and Mumbai, to anything and everything under the sun.

Delivering fresh information as it happens, FRontline Express style.

This is FRontline’s arm handling FR-wide communications and official announcements, including people- or change-related events. Through a collaborative effort with the different FR committees, such as Socials, Learning, CSR, etc.), FRontline Express serves as a real-time medium for these committees to reach the FR community on any

Issue 4

Forging Relations

FRontline: Breaking the Barriers Between Mumbai and ManilaMaria Celeste Torres and Marian Teresa Cruz PHOTOS Joseph Rudio and Prajwala Poojary

The FRontline team: Manila (left) and Mumbai (right)

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announcement they need to cascade. Additionally, FRontline Express undertakes the responsibility to disseminate organization news and announcements to the FR group, and vice versa. The Frontline Express has become the official voice of the FR community, living out its motto: “Be the first to know.”

wallFRont: Changing the landscape of interactive communities.

Launched in Manila last 9th of September 2012 and soon to be launched in Mumbai, wallFRont is a physical and a more interactive venue for anything FR-related, where anyone can share their own thoughts and opinions, via its Trivia Corner and FR Speaks, on the various topics posted by the FRontline team. It also aims to promote connectivity by familiarizing the FR community with each other by featuring random FR individuals, as well as the different FR teams, in the Featured Employees and FR at a Glance sections. The FR Spot Awards section also serves as a way to acknowledge exemplary performers by allowing them to shine in the limelight. It also features FR’s Calendar of Activities, and foreFRontsections, which completes the wallFRont. As an encouragement for the FR community to speak up, be heard and engage with others in the wallFRont, the FRontline team is giving away gift items and prizes to those who participate in its interactive sections.

Leveraging on the close partnership between FR Mumbai and FR Manila, FRontline’s innovation, collaborative effort, dedication and passion to serve the FR community drive the team to continuously deliver on its services.

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FRontline Manila’s wallFRont launch; FRontline Mumbai’s wallFRont

soon to be launched


Issue 4

Forging Relations

Interconnectivity is Fun for SPERT

Michelle de Gorostiza

For the third quarter of the year the SPERT group of the Financial Reporting workstream held its fostering, celebrating games under the theme “Guess It To Win It” on September 21, 2012. SPERT is a convenient moniker for the three teams under the group; SPE for Special Purpose Entites, R for Group Risk Control and T for Corporate Tax. The group is led by Teresa Fuentes-Villaluna.

The fostering started with a sumptuous meal from Uncle Cheffy’s to fuel the afternoon of fun and games.

The entire SPERT team, 78 strong, participated. First up was a game of “Pictionary”, where the entire SPERT was divided into 4 groups consisting of 20 each (the grouping was pre-assigned to make sure there was a balance of representatives from each group in different teams). The top two teams then moved on and were divided into 4 groups of 5 to play and test their musical knowledge in game of “Hum that Tune”, where representatives drew a song and hummed it for their entire team to guess the song title. The two top teams moved on to play in the final game of “Charades”, under the category of movie titles both foreign and local alike. Jila Jimenea from SPE, Jeremias Garganera and Laura Jill Lao from GRC, and Shaun Kevin Quipones from Tax, survived the three rounds and were declared winners.

It came as a surprise to discover that

SPERT members, mostly belonging to Generation Y (born on or after 1977), have a vast knowledge of pop culture as they guessed song titles, old and new in the game “Hum that Tune”. This was also made evident in the game of “Charades” as they correctly guessed movie titles from foreign and local, and from such disparate genres - from the classics to independent films. Who would have thought that through these games, the well-roundedness of the entire team could be revealed?

SPERT’s first quarterly fostering event held last May was a success, and the event for the third quarter lived up to expectations and more. These fostering events aim to bolster relations amongst SPERT members whether they belong to same subgroup or not. The emphasis for camaraderie and interconnectivity within SPERT is more important now than ever, with the SPERT family growing stronger in numbers (up to 78 from 70 during the first fostering event in May). The greater the number, the higher the team morale should be. SPERT is getting bigger and expect bigger things to come!

PHOTOS Abegail Yaun

Special thanks to the organizers and hosts that made the event possible: Buena Co,

Jachin Leong, Michelle de Gorostiza, Pamela Sayao, and Sarah Alpuerto.

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Issue 4

Forging Relations

Through the Eyes of a Wayfarer

Marian Teresa Cruz

The one thing constant in the world is change. But for those of us in DKS, we’d like to think that change is something akin to growth and opportunities. Connectivity means everything given the nature of our industry, which in essence is to provide quality and timely service for our offshore counterparts. Much depends on the way we do our business and for Financial Reporting, this is definitely the team that not only lives up to it but is able to effectively build a strong and professional relationship within. This has been tried and tested over time and seen in the way everything somehow connects and brings everything to full circle. In a recent interview with Head of the UK Branch Reporting, Brendan Hughes amiably shares with us his exposure and experience working in a globally dynamic

and fast-paced environment. After working in Mumbai for almost 3 years and then moving onto Manila, he brings to light, closer than ever, parallelisms between the two locations. It is through his perspective that we realize how important our roles are and how we all interconnect together as one team.

How long did you stay in Mumbai?

I was in Mumbai for 2 yrs and 8 mos. So it was actually to the day, which is why I can be so specific. I was there from Sept 2009 then I left around the April this year.

Then you immediately went to Manila?

I did. I had to go back to the UK to get new visa documents, which are required by the Philippine government which weren’t previously there and I came here after that.

What was your most memorable experience in Mumbai?

I think professionally, what sticks out is that I and my team were part of a basic control week, which was being run by Samir Kemara at that particular point in time. It was pretty much for all the GBS financial services organizations and was quite a big piece. Also the DBOI’s beginning-of-year event was very memorable because I and the other guys were involved in the fashion parade forthat.

You were wearing the traditional Indian outfit?

Yeah, I was wearing a shuvani. Within the organization it’s very similar to Manila where there are a lot of things going on. We also got to go around to various different locations with teams. Even travel between Jaipur and Bangalore as well. I’ve seen some of the festivals as well like the Duvali and that was very impressive as well.

Did you learn to eat any Indian dishes while you were there?

Absolutely and some of my favorites are Dal, but I’m not sure if you’ve ever had that before. They’re very nice and it’s typically a lentil-based, much like a soup which you can eat it with bread. My wife and I learned to cook a few of those things.

As a point of comparison, what would you say is your favorite dish here?

The food here is much different. In Manila, there’s a lot more beef and pork as the basis ingredient, which is not typical at all in India for a number of cultural reasons. However, having said that, I like all the things like pork belly. There’s another one I’ve tasted called “sisig” and some of the noodles like pancit, are also very nice.

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How do you compare Manila and Mumbai?

I’ve only been here a few months, so I don’t know Manila inside out, but I’m very careful not to generalize here because I don’t know Manila as some of the other guys would. Most of my experience in Manila is obviously between the airport and Makati, Makati to the Fort. What I can say about Manila is that its financial district is very distinct from the rest of the city. In the areas where I spend the most of my time, the infrastructure is very good. There are new facilities and the people are friendly.

From a Mumbai perspective, things are altogether different and particularly up in DBOI. There’s a huge amount of construction going on. It’s still being improved and will be for the next couple of years. In Mumbai, there’s a certain kind of electricity to it. The city of Mumbai, downtown is a beautiful place to visit. It is actually the gateway to India and you can see the historical buildings from hundreds years ago. What’s more, there’s no cricket here in Manila, but in Mumbai it’s everywhere.

How about your most memorable experience here in the Philippines?

My most memorable event is getting through the typhoon a few weeks ago and how resilient everybody is. Like during the three days, everybody worked to make sure the others were safe, housed and transported. It made an impact seeing how everybody came together to make it a seamless piece for our stakeholders while in reality, we had to struggle. The way people dealt with that was very inspiring.

What do you like most about Manila and the Filipinos in general?

Apart from typhoons, I love the weather. The people, I know it’s cliché but they are friendly everywhere, extremely helpful and enthusiastic. From what I’ve seen of the country, it’s absolutely very beautiful. I’ve been down to Palawan and out to Tagaytay . A few other things we’ve planned this coming week would be going out to Intramuros, which is going to be really interesting.

Where did you go diving in India?

The first one is down in Goa and another place called Natika state. You see, Bangalore is inland, and there’s a place called Murudeshwara, which is very beautiful. It’s an ancient temple town. I’ve been to Taj Mahal, it’s a very beautiful and amazing sight. I’ve been to Amritsar, where the golden temple was. I’ve been to Varanasi and to Kerala which in the south coast of India. Another interesting place is the Pondicherry, which is on the east coast that used to be a former French colony. So there are a lot of French-speaking people and French restaurants. Even the roadsigns are in French.

What do you think Filipinos and Indians have an edge on that they could capitalize to excel in the corporate world?

I think they are capitalizing already and they really have extremely good work ethics. People are hard-working and enthusiastic. They’re not afraid of getting involved and making sure that they give the right amount of effort to make sure that a task is complete.

Given the second chance, would you take it to work in Manila and Mumbai again?

Absolutely, I would do Mumbai again and I would come to Manila again as well. I’m glad I’m here, because there was an

opportunity to come here three years ago but I was encouraged to take the one inMumbai. I’d still go back there since I loved living there. It’s a very interesting place. So I’m obviously glad that I’m here enjoying and working on these things as well.

Any similarities between Manila and Mumbai?

In both Manila and Mumbai, your senses are kind of like always bombarded. Clearly in Mumbai, in many respects, has you know, different cultures. You can say, Mumbai is British as Manila is to American. Diverse forces or shapers like different sports and that people drive on different sides of the road. These are some of the things that perhaps set things apart, such as religions and festivals, but exciting in their own right. Leading into Christmas now, we start preparations for that. Christmas is a big thing here while in Mumbai, it’s the Duvali festival.

What lessons can you share from your experiences in Mumbai and Manila?

I think that at the end of the day, people need to be informed how they are to be impacted on different times and about different issues. Communication around those things is very important given the myriad of relationships we have in the service centre. This requires that you understand your stakeholders, what their needs are and how these things might change over time. I would always advise that you should always take time to go and speak to people for them to get to know and trust you. Always be calibrating where you think you are and what somebody else is expecting from you.

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Issue 4

Forging Relations

CSR Mumbai: The Pali Ashram Visit

Puja Kanoj PHOTOS Puja Kanoj

The visit to Pali Ashram was organized by the CSR committee in DBOI Mumbai on the 4th August 2012. This ashram is located in the Pali Village, about 100kms away from Mumbai. There were around 100 volunteers from DBOI who participated in this visit for a noble cause.

The day was organized in a systematic way. It kicked off with the welcome from Pali kids, who performed a dance show for us. Then there were various activities performed throughout the day by the DBOI employees for the Pali Ashram. The employees were then divided into different groups, where they undertook various activities – group singing, book-reading, story-telling, and a football match with the kids. There was also a resume writing training for vocational students. Additionally, sports goodies were to the kids, which was very much welcomed.

A wall was painted for a hall in the ashram

indeed successful and all the activities planned were accomplished given the limited time at the Pali Ashram. At the end of the day, all the children at the school were given books and stationery items to help them in their studies.

where the kids normally gather for prayers.

The employee volunteers were also able to plant 100 saplings in the Pali Ashram area.

The photos here clearly displays the enthusiasm of the DB employees.

The event was The Pali Ashram also served tasty food to all the volunteers throughout the day. A royal treatment was endowed to all of them as well, not failing to make them feel special too.

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Issue 4

Forging Relations

FReeze Time: Chill-Out FRidays

Maria Celeste Torres

Last July 27, 2012, loud cheers and laughter filled the entire 12th floor pantry as representatives from the different FR teams battled it out in different Wii games and karaoke for the Game Night. The event was the second of a series of monthly activities spearheaded by the FR Quality Culture Committee (QCC).

Officially dubbed ‘FReeze Time: Chill-Out FRidays’, the initiative aims to be an anti-burn out from the pressure of month-ends and projects for all of FR. “We came up with this for connectivity as well, so we (FR) can get to know each other,” Michelle Joya, FR QCC Chair shares, “We have a new breed of FR – new hires – this can be a venue to break the ice.”

The different sub-workstreams of FR were divided into four teams: Red – Branch APAC, Branch SG, BM; Blue – Corporate Tax, GRC, SPE; Green – NCT, Branch UK; White – EM, Ref Data, Change Engagement. The four teams represent the FR Management Team and were grouped together as such to cultivate friendship and collaboration between team members. In the spirit of friendly competition, each can acquire points for their teams by participating in the activities held every month. The team with the highest number of points at the end of the year wins.

The point-system started with the kick-off event last June 29, Acoustic Night, where

teams proudly wore their team colors as they took a break from work and indulged in good company, relaxing music, fun games and overflowing pizza and drinks.

The FR QCC organized another event last September – Bingo Night. It was a fun-filled event meant to raise funds for the FR CSR-sponsored organization ‘Cancer Warriors Foundation’ (CWF). Understanding that other FR employees are pre-occupied with RTB tasks, the organizers opened up a conference call to enable them to still join in the fun.

This October, Mr. and Miss FR will be held to once again raise funds for the benefit of the CWF kids. Each team nominated a pair to represent their team for the said event. It hopes to gather funds, not just from FR, but from the rest of PSC Manila, as team members are utilizing their network to market their candidates to help the little cancer warriors. More than the monetary incentive, the FR QCC hopes to encourage the candidates to join for the pride and honor of earning points for their

respective teams and the opportunity to support a noble cause.

FR QCC Chair Mitch Joya wishes to convey the following message, “On behalf of the QCC Team we would like to thank the Managers, the leads, the supervisors and the entire FR family for your continued support and participation. We also like to thank you for your patience and understanding as we still firm up the details of our events. Hopefully, you will continue to support the future projects with the same enthusiasm. It is also greatly appreciated to see the FR family wearing their team colors to support their respective teams. Lastly, on behalf of the People Com and the FR Leadership team we would like to thank the FR QCC team, who, despite their projects, month-ends, quarter-ends and daily reports, still find time to organize the events. The entire committee is working hard and giving its best efforts to make the events successful to ensure that everyone in FR enjoys being a part of our family.”

PHOTOS Joseph Rudio

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Issue 4

Forging Relations

Sparrow and the City

Ramdas Navale PHOTOS: Ramdas Navale

While growing up in Pune, I have spent many lazy afternoons reading, and watching sparrows hop around right inside our house and in the balcony. Nowadays there are only crows in that area. Crows, I think, are ugly and very aggressive as well. Ravens I think are far more beautiful. I used to think that they were the cutest little birds. It is sad to hear that their numbers are declining. What we need in Indian cities are protected parks or areas where the trees are not allowed to be cut which can be sanctuaries for the diminishing wild life. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.

Imagine my joy when I saw sparrows again, in the place where we live presently. This is the sparrow I spotted outside my kitchen window. We see quite

Immersing Ganesha in a river symbolizing a ritual to see off Lord in his journey taking

away the misfortunes of the devotes

a few of them as they have made a nest here. Over the years, as we moved from one city in India to another, I alwayswondered where the sparrows had gone. I assumed that the ever growing population of stray dogs, crows, rats and cockroaches were somehow depriving the sparrows of their food. This is not the only reason, but I’ll get to that a little later.

The sparrow, once the exemplar of a commonplace bird, is becoming increasingly rare in Mumbai.

This is a tip to attract birds to your area. Every day, preferably during sunrise, make it a point to feed a handful of whole grains like rice in the garden or balcony or any other place where birds can comfortably come and eat. As far as

stick to the timings. Slowly you will find more birds are coming to your place.

In Mumbai, bird lovers are providing shelters like wooden boxes on trees, which can be used as nests by sparrows. They have put up more than 1,000 boxes across the city so far. Hopefully this has some beneficial effect. But just today I saw a horde of crows hounding the sparrows outside my window, trying to drive them away from their nest.

It is important to remember that common birds, like the sparrow, are as important a part of biodiversity as any other element. Frequently, city-dwellers assume that they live in an environment completely insulated from the pressures of nature,

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and one over which humans have complete control. This is not true. Crows both control the amount of garbage on India’s streets, and will grow their population in response to increasing amounts of garbage. Similarly, sparrows depend on insect populations; in their absence, the insect problem will increase. Equally, the overuse of pesticides will cause feeding on pesticide-resistant insects to kill off sparrows. There are also concerns that electromagnetic radiation from cellphone towers, for example, is affecting sparrows’ longevity, though this has not been properly demonstrated yet.

There are, even given these concerns, many simple steps that can be taken to restore the sparrow population. The most important is simple acceptance: that some areas of the urban landscape, of cities’ architecture, will be taken over by birds. Sparrows nested in the cavities common in old-style buildings; modern architecture, flat-faced glass-and-concrete, does not provide them with suitable spaces. Of course, more green spaces in the middle of India’s towns will help both their human and their animal inhabitants. Pesticide use in cities should be looked at again — it is clear that it has negative effects on urban

fauna, and thus can, in the long term, harm the ways that nature itself controls insect populations.

In the absence of sensible, far-reaching approaches to urban biodiversity, India will continue to lose species like the sparrow which do not just serve a crucial purpose in maintaining public spaces and the urban habitat, but alsocreate by their presence an aesthetic sense of space so important for town-dwellers.

Delhi’s attempt to put an urban bird in the forefront of public conservation efforts should thus be applauded, as a shift from the traditional way in which biodiversity is imagined in India. The sooner Indians recognise the fact that increasing urbanisation does not mean that animal and bird populations have to be wiped out, the better.

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and one over which humans have complete control. This is not true. Crows both control the amount of garbage on India’s streets, and will grow their population in response to increasing amounts of garbage. Similarly, sparrows depend on insect populations; in their absence, the insect problem will increase. Equally, the overuse of pesticides will cause feeding on pesticide-resistant insects to kill off sparrows. There are also concerns that electromagnetic radiation from cellphone towers, for example, is affecting sparrows’ longevity, though this has not been properly demonstrated yet.

There are, even given these concerns, many simple steps that can be taken to restore the sparrow population. The most important is simple acceptance: that some areas of the urban landscape, of cities’ architecture, will be taken over by birds. Sparrows nested in the cavities common in old-style buildings; modern architecture, flat-faced glass-and-concrete, does not provide them with suitable spaces. Of course, more green spaces in the middle of India’s towns will help both their human and their animal inhabitants. Pesticide use in cities should be looked at again — it is clear that it has negative effects on urban

fauna, and thus can, in the long term, harm the ways that nature itself controls insect populations.

In the absence of sensible, far-reaching approaches to urban biodiversity, India will continue to lose species like the sparrow which do not just serve a crucial purpose in maintaining public spaces and the urban habitat, but alsocreate by their presence an aesthetic sense of space so important for town-dwellers.

Delhi’s attempt to put an urban bird in the forefront of public conservation efforts should thus be applauded, as a shift from the traditional way in which biodiversity is imagined in India. The sooner Indians recognise the fact that increasing urbanisation does not mean that animal and bird populations have to be wiped out, the better.

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