Manea is the first Romanian ever appointed by Austria’s Erste Group Bank, which controls BCR, as CEO of Romania’s largest lender.
Manea’s appointment is pending approval by Romania’s central bank.
Manea joined BCR in 2012, when he returned to Romania, continuing his career of over 15 years at international level, during which time he has held management positions in the investment and corporate banking sectors. As a Vice-President, Manea was in charge of the operational Corporate line, supervising the banking services divisions for large companies, the network of shopping centers for small and medium firms, investment banking, capital markets, banking transactions & commerce financing, public sector & infrastructure financing.
Spurny said he decided to leave BCR in order to return to his home town, Prague, where he will also hold a top management position.
Spurny had successfully carried out one of the most complex restructuring processes in the Romanian banking sector and Manea’s task is to consolidate BCR’s top position on the retail and corporate sector, according to Austria’s Erste group head Andreas Treichl.
Erste put Spurny in charge of BCR in the spring of 2012. Spurny had previously held CEO positions at major financial and banking institutions in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
BCR posted a net profit of RON603.4 million (EUR135.7 million) in the first half of 2015, from a loss of RON276 million in the same period the year before. The bank cleaned up its balance sheet and reduced its risk costs for non-performing loans from RON1.3 billion to RON26.2 million.
BCR swung back to profit in the first quarter, when it posted RON344 million (EUR77.1 million) and had a profit of RON259.4 million in the second quarter. At the end of June, the bank had assets of RON61.55 billion, up 1.46% compared to the previous quarter.