Bancherul - BANCI / ENGLISH / Erste Group awarded Best Private Bank in Central & Eastern Europe 2012

Erste Group statement:

"For the second time this year, Erste Group Private Banking has won a renowned international award. After having been nominated in February the best private bank in Austria, Hungary and Romania by the international business magazine Euromoney, on 8 November another prestigious publication, The Banker, awarded Erste Group Bank AG Best Private Bank in Central & Eastern Europe 2012.

The Banker judging panel compared private banks across CEE according to key performance indicators such as portfolio management, asset allocation, due diligence, risk management, growth strategies, customer service, ethical factors, business models, staff retention levels and innovation.

"This achievement is based on a uniform strategy and extensive know-how", explains Peter Ipkovich, Head of Wealth Creation and Group Private Banking at Erste Group. "We have a long tradition in private banking in Austria where we already are market leader. We are now well on the way to becoming market leader in Central and Eastern Europe too. Irrespective of whether they are Romanian, Austrian or Croatian, our clients receive individual support and investment advice in their own native language at the highest standards, based on rigorous local and international training and selection of our advisors," says Ipkovich. Discretionary asset management and uniform standards in the investment strategy, product selection, services and the combination of central steering and local, personal implementation are the basis for the highest international quality standards. This is reflected by the figures: Erste Group Private Banking manages - thanks to substantially expanding its client base - assets worth around EUR 15 billion (Q3 2012).

Over the past decade households in Central and Eastern Europe experienced a significant increase of personal wealth, which doubled and even tripled in several countries. However, the region is far from Western European levels (such as Austria), where wealth accumulation has taken place over a much longer period of time. "This suggests there is still ample room for CEE wealth to converge to higher levels - and that's exactly our role: to help our customers to create and secure wealth, even in a challenging economic environment. We see this award as a sign that we are on the right track", concludes Peter Ipkovich."