As a major organization within the financial sector, Erste Group has played a leading role in the development of ideas, initiatives and concrete projects together with civil society for many years. The task of Stefan Wallner, the former general secretary of Caritas Austria and managing director of the national organization of the Green Party,will be to expand and intensify this partnership. His responsibilities will include closer integration of existing initiatives, development of projects together with the civil society, and the creation of new partnerships.

Erste Group has been developing in partnership with other organizations and NGOs a comprehensive social banking program in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe to address directly the needs of traditionally unbanked groups of the societies. In Austria, Erste's engagement for civil society includes Zweite Sparkasse, which today boasts 8,000 customers and an honorary staff of 350, as well as the Time Bank volunteer project for employees of Erste Group, its joint activities in the area of debt prevention and its role as exclusive banking partner for numerous NGOs.

As general secretary of Caritas, Stefan Wallner played a key role in many of these initiatives - especially in the establishment of Zweite Sparkasse in 2006 and in the development of the social programme of Erste Foundation. He was also member of the jury for many years for the Erste Social Integration Award in all of Central and Eastern Europe.

'With Stefan Wallner back on board, we have an ally and innovator on our team again,' stated Andreas Treichl, CEO of Erste Group. 'Wallner has proven many times over that he is capable of leading organizations to adapt to the new social challenges and modernize in difficult times. With these qualities, he will expand and intensify our work with civil society, and also help to advance change at Erste Group.'

Wallner: 'I am looking forward to these challenging new tasks. Especially the banking sector is going through enormous changes right now that affect the role of banks in society and how they work together with civil society.'

Erste Group Bank AG published this content on 25 January 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 25 January 2017 14:32:06 UTC.

Original documenthttps://www.erstegroup.com/de/news-media/presseaussendungen/2017/01/25/stefan-wallner-joins-erste-group

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