Commerzbank AG named the former chief executive officer of Erste Group Bank AG as its new head of risk, in the first major appointment under new Supervisory Board Chairman Jens Weidmann.
(Bloomberg) — Commerzbank AG named the former chief executive officer of Erste Group Bank AG as its new head of risk, in the first major appointment under new Supervisory Board Chairman Jens Weidmann.
“We are very pleased to have been able to recruit Bernd Spalt as a high-profile chief risk officer,” Weidmann, the former president of Germany’s central bank who took on the role in May, said in a statement Monday. “He has successfully taken on responsibility and gained valuable experience in difficult times and in various markets.”
Spalt rose through the ranks at Erste Group Bank serving in risk departments before being appointed successor to long-standing CEO Andreas Treichl in 2020. He left the lender last year amid strategic differences with the supervisory board.
Commerzbank’s current CRO, Marcus Chromik, said last year that he would leave the firm when his term runs out at the end of 2023. Commerzbank’s previous candidate for the role as risk head, Rüdiger Rass, pulled out, leaving the German lender scrambling to find a replacement.
Read More: Commerzbank Designated Risk Head Pulls Out After Regulator Talks
Spalt’s appointment is still subject to approval by regulators, the bank said in the statement. He would be the third Erste alumni to join Commerzbank in recent years. The German bank hired Thomas Schaufler as head of retail and small business clients in 2022, and Sabine Mlnarsky as its human resources chief at the beginning of this year.
(Adds background in fifth paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.