Drabikowski, vice-president of PKO Bank Polski, one of Europe’s largest Visa cards issuing bank, will represent the interest of nine countries in Visa Europe sub-region, which includes Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Drabikowski said in a statement that he will be tasked with representing the interests of all Visa Europe member banks on nine markets, eight of which are countries which have recently joined the European Union and face the same challenges regarding the promotion of electronic payments.
Visa Europe’s Executive Board has 17 directors, either elected or appointed by Visa Europe member banks. This year, four other new directors have been elected through the vote of Visa Europe member institutions.
The Executive Board represents more than 3,000 member institutions in 37 European countries and is tasked with establishing the group’s strategy and operational plans.
There are over 500 million Visa cards in Europe. Romanians spent 9% more on Visa cards in the fiscal year ended September 2014, reaching EUR21 billion.
In 2014, the number of Visa cards issued in Romania rose 2.6% to 7.3 million units, in the context of consolidating the portfolio of debit cards by 3.6%.