Bancherul - BANCI / ENGLISH / VBAG Supervisory Board resolves new divisional structure

Headcount reduction of 20% by end of 2013

In today’s Supervisory Board meeting of Österreichische Volksbanken-Aktiengesellschaft (VBAG), the owners approved the internal reorganisation of the Group’s divisions, said the bank in a press release.

“We are thereby preparing the Bank for the new association model (modified structure of association of Volksbanks),” emphasised VBAG Chief Executive Officer Gerald Wenzel. “We have pooled the business units that will no longer be part of our core business in a separate division. This way, we will have fewer assets in future, thus shortening the assets side of our balance sheet and strengthening capitalization,” stated Wenzel.

The new titles and structure:
Division 1: Executive Departments and Services – Managing Board member Gerald Wenzel
Division 2: Risk Management – Managing Board member Michael Mendel
Division 3: Market – Managing Board member Martin Fuchsbauer (new units: Syndicated Finance, Renewable Energy Project Financing in Austria and Germany, VB Factoring, Immo KAG – all previously in division 4)
Division 4: Non-core Business – Managing Board member Wolfgang Perdich (new: parts of Investment Book set to be downsized)

This clearly shows what will be part of VBAG’s core business in future. The core business is bundled in the Market division, the Non-Core Business division contains all business fields which will be wound down in the medium term in order to strengthen capitalisation.

VB Romania, Volksbank Leasing International and Volksbank Malta are also assigned to the “Non-core Business” division. These subsidiarieswill not be a part of core business under the new strategy and are set to be sold depending on the market situation.

“Thanks to this reorganisation, we will be a highly effective central institute for the Volksbanks in future. The reorganisation and the new structure reinforce our mandate of serving our majority owners and supporting them with innovative products. This way, we can ensure a targeted supply of loans together with the regional Volksbanks,” commented Gerald Wenzel.

“The redimensioning of VBAG necessitates staff cutbacks. Our planning for the next two years provides for a headcount reduction or around 20% or approximately 250 employees,” stated Wenzel. In order to cushion the effects the layoff process, an internal social works agreement was reached between the company and the Works Councils.