UniCredit Tiriac, the fourth largest bank on the market in terms of assets, has chosen a vice-president in charge of retail, after a period when the division was supervised by its chief executive, Rasvan Radu. The individual selected is Zoltan Major, 41, who was recruited from Hungary based on his 16-year experience in the industry of financial services, with companies such as Citibank, ABN Amro and GE Capital.
Major's appointment, however, is subject to approval by the General Meeting of Shareholders of UniCredit Tiriac Bank, as well as by the National Bank of Romania.
Born in Romania, the new executive vice-president of UniCredit Tiriac had been the CEO of the Hungarian Health Insurance Fund since October 2006 before accepting UniCredit's proposal.
His relevant experience in retail banking comes chiefly from the 1998-1999 period, when he worked for Citibank in London, as head of a department developing products for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, within the International Personal Banking division. Prior to that, from 1994, he was employed by Citibank Hungary. After Citibank, Major worked for ABN Amro Hungary (K&H Bank), where he held the position of chief executive until 2002, and then for GE Capital International Services/Genpact, where he was chief operating officer for Europe between 2005 and 2006, with responsibilities that included the launch of projects for Romania and Poland.
The task, which currently faces Major, is to implement a rapid growth strategy for the Romanian retail market and bring UniCredit Tiriac to a solid position, on the mass client segment inclusively.
"We want to expand our presence, so as to reach our target clients, SMEs included. We will do this by consolidating our distribution channels: the recent reorganisation of our network (into branches dedicated to corporate clients and branches specialised in r
