Misu Negritoiu, 56, will become chief executive of ING Bank Romania as of August 1, as well as chairman of the Country Board of ING Romania, which includes ING Asigurari de Viata.

Almost ten years after joining the bank, six of which having served as deputy chief executive, Negritoiu follows Belgian Dirk Serbruyns, who ends his three-year term in Bucharest and is to become programme manager with ING Amsterdam's corporate service management.

"We are entrusting the running of the bank to the local management, fully confident that the major transformations in terms of expansion of the banking operations will be successfully handled by the Romanian team," stated Dirk Serbruyns.

Negritoiu is thus the first domestic banker to become the chief executive of a major foreign-held bank, after a number of multinationals like Vodafone, Coca Cola and Unilever have entrusted the management of their local subsidiaries to Romanians. ING was the fourth-leading bank on the market in terms of assets at the end of the first quarter of 2006, with a market share of 6.3%.

Misu Negritoiu will still supervise the corporate service division directly, with the number two position in the bank to be filled by Belgian Albert Roggemans, 57, who will be the deputy chief executive in charge of the division providing services to individual customers and deputy-chairman of ING Romania's Country Board.

Roggemans has previously been head of the retail service distribution division with ING Belgium. The second deputy chief executive will be Giovanna Ionescu, who is in charge of the IT infrastructure.

At the end of his term, Serbruyns says his only regret is that ING did not launch the retail programme sooner. "We have big plans for the retail and the growth targets for this activity in Romania occupy a central place in the group's strategy," Serbruyns says.

Negrit