BCR
The largest bank on the market announced that the tenure of its executive vice-president in charge of the corporate segment, Wolfgang Schoiswohl, has been extended by two and a half years. On April 2012, Czech-born Martin Skopek is to take over management of the retail division for the second time, but the duration of his tenure and whether this is an interim solution has not been specified, while Skopek will continue to oversee retail for the entire Erste group, the majority shareholder of BCR. Banking sources say the departure of Oana Petrescu from her position as executive vice-president of retail at the end of March 2012, after just one year and a half, is a personal decision and also to do with management reasons of the majority shareholder of BCR.
The tenure of British-born CEO Dominic Bruynseels is set to end in mid next year. He took over at the helm of BCR in the summer of 2008, before the start of the crisis. Bruynseels was brought on by Andreas Treichl, head of Erste, to manage growth, not sail the bank through a time of extended recession.
Lately he has been the subject of rumors that he might leave his position before his tenure came to an end, but they were disproved by the fact that Bruynseels was recently invited to Vienna to talk to Erste investors about the BCR situation. It remains to be seen what the final decision will be on a prospective extension of his tenure as CEO of BCR.
A key part in BCR’s top management is currently played by head of risk Michael Beitz. He was installed in his current position in August 2010. He has a difficult task considering that a fifth of BCR loans are non-performing.
BRD
In a rather unusual move, the second-largest bank on the market launched a message of management change, which was interpreted prematurely on the market as targeting the president. Guy Poupet, president and CEO of the bank for the last two years, says no date has been set for his departure from the position. Early next year, Frenchman Alexandre Maymat will be appointed as member of the Board of Directors. He was suggested as Poupet’s successor when he leaves. Maymat would need more time to become familiar with the situation before he takes over at the helm of BRD under the current difficult circumstances. The French have not explained the reasons for this move towards change.
The co-CEO position is set to remain vacant after Sorin Popa’s departure to the Paris headquarters of SocGen in January, with Gigi Marinel awaiting the approval of the central bank to helm the retail division. He is the former secretary general of the bank.
Two veterans of BRD’s top management team are Petre Bunescu and Claudiu Cercel. Gabriela Gavrilescu was appointed executive vice-president in charge of the corporate segment in early 2011.
Raiffeisen
2012 will see the end of tenures for several Raiffeisen Bank bosses, starting with president Steven van Groningen. He is set to say this summer whether he will stay on in his current position or opt for a change in his career. Van Groningen is one of the longest-standing CEOs on the market. He built the current Raiffeisen bank on the structure of the former Banca Agricola agricultural bank, managed the bank through its significant growth, then through an early restructuring followed by a consolidation that allowed the bank to go through the crisis without incurring major non-performing loan costs, and remain among the most profitable institutions on the market.
Marinel Burduja, first vice-president of Raiffeisen, in charge of the corporate division, is will also reach the end of his tenure. Lately there have been rumors that he might plan to leave the bank, which have been left unconfirmed. Another veteran of the Raiffeisen team, James Stewart, ends his current tenure in 2012. In an interview to ZF last autumn, he said he had never felt the risk of reaching a professional standstill in Romania and that if he will still be needed he could stay on.
Vladimir Kalinov, the Bulgarian at the helm of the retail division, is still early in his tenure.
UniCredit Tiriac Bank
UniCredit this year freshened up the top management team with two vice-presidents of its key divisions, both Italians: Marco Esposito in charge of corporate and Emanuele Butta in charge of retail. The “veterans” of the bank’s executive board, whose current structure has been in place since 2007, are Rasvan Radu, executive president, and Stanislav Georgiev, financial vicepresident, who were part of the original team. In 2008 they were joined by Daniela Bodirca, risk vicepresident.
Rasvan Radu has been working for the Italian bank since 2005, when he became president of the former UniCredit Romania. He says he is not considering any change in his career.
Alpha Bank & Bancpost
For the two Greek-controlled banks, 2012 should be the year of merger. This will also entail a selection of the two banks’ top management resources.
Banking sources say a decision on the new CEO of the future bank, which will become the third-largest by assets, has not been made yet. Although in Bucharest the scales may be tipped one way, the decision will be made in Athens. Peter Weiss, president of Bancpost, and Sergiu Oprescu, president of Alpha Bank, are rather discreet figures, with Weiss starting his tenure in early 2011. Over the course of this year both have kept away from public appearances and from discussing the situations of the banks they run.
Bancpost’s top management team also includes Greek-born Kyriakos Xydis, who oversees the retail business.
Alpha Bank’s executive team is more extensive, but the only executive known to the market is Stere Farmache, first executive vice-president of the bank – a position he has held since 2009. He usually speaks publicly in his capacity as stock exchange official, as he is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), and he declines to speak as no. 2 of Alpha Bank.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)