Sponsored Content
Willibald Cernko
VSE and CEESEG: Heimo Scheuch to Serve as New Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Changes in the supervisory board of Wiener Börse AG and CEESEG AG have taken place and a new executive committee was elected. Heimo Scheuch, CEO of Wienerberger AG, will serve as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Angelika Sommer-Hemetsberger, member of the Management Board of Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG, was elected Vice-Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board.
June 15, 2016
Robert Zadrazil Takes Over the Helm of Bank Austria from Willibald Cernko
After having been board member of Bank Austria for ten years, Robert Zadrazil (45) will now step it up and replace Willibald Cernko (59) who will step down as of 1 March 2016. The bank speaks of a generation change.
January 18, 2016
Bank Austria Posts Net Profit of EUR 776 Mln in H1 2014
Net profit rises by 34.3 per cent to EUR 776 million compared with the same period of the previous year.
August 6, 2014
Hanna Kordik Awarded the Prize for Outstanding Economic Journalism
Hanna Kordik was awarded the prestigious Horst Knapp Prize in a ceremony. The eulogy was delivered by Ewald Nowotny, Governor of Oesterreichische Nationalbank, in his capacity as chairman of an independent jury. The speaker at the award ceremony was the industrialist Hannes Androsch.
June 10, 2014
Austria: Bank Levy Begins to Wobble
Austria´s Minister of Economics Reinhold Mitterlehner proposed to reduce the bank levy. The coalition partner, the social democrats, is surprisingly open to talks.
April 25, 2014
Erste Group to be Relocated to the Czech Republic?
CEO of Erste Group, Andreas Treichl, has informed Czech President Milos Zeman about the bank’s intention to move to Prague in the coming years.
April 9, 2014
Bank Austria to Focus on Growth Markets in the Future
Because of the high value of write-offs Bank Austria, CEE affiliate of Italian UniCredit, had to face record losses amounting to € 1.6bn. CEO Willibald Cernko, however, does not consider the bank having made any mistakes in the past.
March 12, 2014
Losses Running into the Billions for Bank Austria
Bank Austria’s results for the 2013 financial year.
March 11, 2014
Cernko: Wealthy to Support R&D in Austria
The CEO of Bank Austria calls upon the Austrian government to take into consideration the funding of research and development by wealthy individuals and regard this as part of their “tax duty”.
February 12, 2014
Bank Austria: Massive Staff Reduction Ahead
Until 2025, Bank Austria will reduce its workforce by 4,000 employees in Austria, Doris Tomanek told the Austrian daily „Presse“. Since 2005, Doris Tomanek works as head of Human Resources CEE.
January 25, 2014
Bank Austria Considers Establishing Sub-Brand
In the next years, the Austrian subsidiary of Italian UniCredit wants to put more effort into the development of the mobile and online banking segment.
December 31, 2013
Austria: Rules for Bank Tax to Be Changed
The governing parties call for changes in the bank tax which would increase the burden of some Austrian banks.
December 20, 2013
„We Can Exclude a Bankruptcy of Hypo Group”
Ewald Nowotny, governor of the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) and Klaus Liebscher, head of Hypo Group´s supervisory board argue that the nationalized bank will be downsized according to plan.
November 29, 2013
Bank Austria: Drastic Job Cut
The austerity measures at Bank Austria take form. CEO Willibald Cernko refers to the bank taxes.
November 28, 2013
New Austerity Measures for Bank Austria
UniCredit´s Austrian subsidiary and biggest Austrian bank faces job cuts and structural measures again.
November 26, 2013
Austria: Cernko Favors Participation in Bad Bank
CEO of Bank Austria Willibald Cernko is in favor of Austrian banks participating in a bad bank for Hypo Group Alpe Adria.
November 21, 2013
Bank Austria: Results Slightly above Expectations
Results for the first nine months of 2013: BankAustria posts net profit of over EUR 1 billion for the first nine months.
November 12, 2013
Number of Banks Shrinks Substantially
Since 2008, about 10% of the banks had to be closed in the Eurozone. In the last five years, 16,200 bank shops were shut down. In Austria, the situation is almost the same.
November 5, 2013
Cernko: Bank Shops in Austria Have to Be Reduced
In spite of the banks’ progresses Austria still has a high densitiy in bank branches.
October 30, 2013
Bank Austria Considers Establishing Franchise Banks in Austria
The streamlining of the CESEE network of Bank Austria seems to take on a very concrete form now.
September 16, 2013
Austria: Banks Indignant At Chancellor Faymann
Chancellor Werner Faymann has started the election campaign with an attack against the banks. However, CEO of Bank Austria Willibald Cernko points out that the banking industry secures 70,000 jobs in Austria.
August 9, 2013
Loan Loss Provisions Impede Higher Profits for Bank Austria
Results for the first half of 2013: Bank Austria posts net profit of EUR 566 million for the first half of 2013.
August 7, 2013
Bad Bank for Hypo Group?
According to market rumors, Austria´s government wants domestic banks to participate in a bad bank for the nationalized Hypo Group. Finance Minister Maria Fekter denies such reports.
August 5, 2013
CESEE: „Growth Story Did Not End“
In an interview with the Austrian newspaper “Presse”, chairman of the CEESEG supervisory board Willibald Cernko explains that Central and Eastern Europe needs a new growth model.
August 3, 2013
Bank Austria To Boost Capital Base
CEO Cernko wants Eastern Europe to play an important role again in the future.
March 19, 2013
Bank Austria Plans Radical Reduction of Branches
The biggest Austrian bank wants to reduce the number of branches from 350 to 250 in the next two years.
February 22, 2013
Bank Austria Posts Net Profit Increase
Net operating profit up by 11 per cent thanks to slight growth in customer business, flat cost trend and further decline in provisioning charge.
November 14, 2012
Austrian Banking Industry to Downsize Radically
According to Bank Austria´s CEO Willibald Cernko, the Austrian banking industry must cut its number of branches radically.
October 23, 2012
Fekter Interested in Hungary´s Bank Taxation Plans
The Austrian Minister of Finance wants to analyse the taxation plans of the Hungarian government thoroughly. The bank taxes would be “highly interesting”, Fekter says.
October 19, 2012
Austrian Banks View Savers Protection to be Endangered
The planned unification of the deposit protection is met with skepticism at Austrian banks. As the details are not clear yet, the deposit protection is yet no issue anyway.
September 15, 2012
„Banking Union Must Not Become Burden for Real Economy“
The Federation of Austrian Industries (IV) underlines that the banking union must be competition-neutral. Above all, the real economy must not face liquidity constraints, IV says.
September 13, 2012
Bank Austria: Bernkopf New Management Board Member
Helmut Bernkopf becomes Management Board member of Bank Austria with responsibility for the bank’s private and corporate customers
September 11, 2012
Bank Union: Austrian Banking Industry Cautious
European Forum Alpbach: In mid-September, the EU Commission will present its plans regarding the bank union. The bank union should not be implemented too fast, the Austrian Financial Market Authority says.
September 1, 2012
Bank Austria as UniCredit´s Cash Cow
Without Bank Austria, UniCredit would have been in the loss area. The CESEE region is still Bank Austria´s future market.
August 4, 2012
Rising Profit at Bank Austria
Bank Austria posts net profit of € 646m for the first six months. Net operating profit was up by 11.1 per cent. Lending volume rises by 3.3 per cent to € 136bn.
August 3, 2012
Dispute Over Bank Taxes
In Austria, only 82 of 787 banks have to pay bank taxes. Above all, the Raiffeisen sector and the Volksbanken sector are excluded.
August 2, 2012
Bank Austria named Best Bank in Austria
The distinguished international financial magazine EUROMONEY has named Bank Austria the Best Bank in Austria in its Awards for Excellence 2012.
July 7, 2012
Austrian Banks Affected by European Crisis
Bank Austria´s CEO Willibald Cernko still believes in the common currency. Last year, earnings went down by 14.6%.
June 26, 2012
Bank Austria Sells Headquarters
The highest-bidder procedure is to lead to a sale of the property by the end of 2012. Bank Austria will retain its property until the new headquarters has been completed.
June 15, 2012
Bank Austria Posts Rising Profits
Net operating profit was up by 20 per cent, reflecting sound customer business, a flat cost trend and a further decline in the provisioning charge. Lending grew by 3.7% to € 133.4bn.
May 10, 2012
Bank Austria Considers Leaving East European Markets
UniCredit´s subsidiary may leave Baltic countries as well as Kazakhstan. CEO Cernko is optimistic to achieve more than € 1.0bn in profits this year.
March 30, 2012
Bank Austria: Cernko Confirmed as CEO
Bank Austria’s Supervisory Board renews the term of office of Willibald Cernko and Rainer Hauser for another three years.
March 23, 2012
Cernko Claims Bank Rescue Fund
Bank Austria´s CEO Willibald Cernko wants the bank tax to be solely used for a stability fund in order to support financially stricken banks.
March 20, 2012
Cernko Criticizes VBAG Bail-Out
Willibald Cernko, CEO of Bank Austria considers that the Austrian state reacted too late. A partly nationalization could have taken place already one year before.
March 9, 2012
Cernko Against „Talking Down Austrian Banks“
Bank Austria´s CEO is strictly against an undifferentiated view on CEE-countries. Austrian banks with an exposure in the CEE region shall not be talked down.
February 17, 2012
Cernko: „Triple A Only in the Medium Term“
Bank Austria´s CEO Willibald Cernko does not think that Austria re-gains its “AAA” status within the next three years.
February 16, 2012
Bank Austria Writes Off Greek Bonds
The Austrian subsidiary of the Italian UniCredit Group has to write off Greek sovereign bonds by € 100m.
February 13, 2012
Experts Consider Sale of Bank Austria
After the sluggish capital increase of UniCredit, experts do not exclude a sale of Bank Austria, which operates the CEE business.
January 10, 2012
Bank Austria Expects Positive Results
In spite of high losses in the third quarter, the subsidiary of the Italian UniCredit forecasts slight, but positive results.
December 28, 2011
Jobs to be Cut at Bank Austria
After the announcement of high write-offs yesterday, the Austrian subsidiary of UniCredit will reduce its staff from 10,800 to 10,000 by 2015.
November 15, 2011