Bancherul - BANCI / ENGLISH / Wolfgang Schoiswohl is the new BCR�s Executive Vice President, Corporate and Treasury & Capital markets

The National Bank of Romania approved the BCR�s Supervisory Board proposal to appoint Mr. Wolfgang Schoiswohl as a member in BCR�s Executive Board, Executive Vice Presedinte responsible for the business lines Corporate and Treasury & Capital markets, said the bank in a press release.

Starting with February 4, 2009, BCR�s Executive Board is complete and consists of:
� Dominic Bruynseels, CEO
� Helmuth Hintringer, Executive Vice President, Risk & Finance
� Oana Petrescu, Executive Vice President, Operations
� Martin �kopek, Executive Vice President, Retail & Private Banking
� Wolfgang Scholswohl, Executive Vice President, Corporate and Treasury & Capital Markets

An internationally experienced banker, Mr. Schoiswohl joins BCR after a 23-year career in banking in Austria, Great Britain, Romania and Hungary. He knows very well the Romanian economy and banking market serving 5 years in Bucharest within HVB Group subsidiaries.

Mr. Schoiswohl gained his broad professional knowledge on Romanian economy environment through several top management positions held successively starting with 2002: Executive Director and Deputy Chairman, Corporate Banking, in HVB Bank Romania; Chairman and CEO of Banca Comerciala Ion Tiriac (after acting as Deputy Chairman and CFO) and Deputy Chairman responsible for Corporate in Banca Comerciala HVB Tiriac. Most recently, he worked as Member of the Board, responsible for Corporate and Treasury, in Volksbank Hungary.

Mr. Schoiswohl started his international banking career in London in 1996, serving 5 years in Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG as responsible for corporate business links between UK and CEE. Previously he worked in Austria for Bank Austria and Oesterreichische Landerbank AG.

BCR, a member of the Erste Group, is a universal bank dedicated to both retail and corporate customers. BCR is the leading banking organization in Romania, managing assets worth of more than EUR 17.5 billion. BCR is the most valuable Romanian financial services brand. The bank is offering a full range of banking services having 634 retail branches and agencies (for individuals and micro corporations) located in most of the Romanian cities with a population of more than 10,000 inhabitants. The corporate customers are serviced in 50 corporate commercial centres dedicated exclusively to SMEs and big companies. The bank provides to both retail and corporate customers a complex offer of banking products and services, including Internet banking, phone banking and e-commerce services. BCR issues 24 types of debit and credit card, and is the owner of the largest national ATM and POS network � over 1,800 machines and over 15.000 electronic terminals operational at the merchants, for card payments. BCR is currently the most important financial Group in Romania, with operations both in Romania and abroad developed by its local branches, foreign banking subsidiaries and representative offices. BCR is also holding top positions on the financial market segments for leasing, asset management, housing bank, equity and pension funds as well as insurance supported by its domestic subsidiaries.

Erste Bank Group is with its over 54,000 employees one of the leading financial providers in CEE, serving over 16 million clients in over 3,000 branches in 8 countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine). As of 30 September 2008 Erste Bank Group has 209.4 billion EUR total assets, net profit of EUR 1,463.0 million and ROE of 21.7%.