Erste Group wins best private bank awards for both CEE and Austria from The Banker

Erste Group Bank AG (Erste Group) has been recognized as the ”Best Private Bank in Central and Eastern Europe” by The Banker and PWM as part of the financial industry publications’ joint Private Banking Awards for 2016. The Banker and PWM also acknowledged Erste Group’s subsidiary Erste Bank Oesterreich as the ”Best Private Bank in Austria.” The winners of these esteemed industry awards were announced at a ceremony held in London last week.

“We are honored that The Banker and PWM have recognized our long tradition of providing top-tier private banking services in Central and Eastern Europe,” said Wolfgang Traindl, Head of Private Banking and Institutional Clients at Erste Group. “Irrespective of which of our markets they are based in, our clients receive individualized support and investment advice at the highest standards, making full use of the rigorous local and international training and selection of our private banking advisors.”

According to the jury selecting the winners of the The Banker / PWM awards, “Erste Private Banking is the leading private bank in Austria and in Central and Eastern Europe, with more than 7,000 clients in Austria, and another 9,000 in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Romania. Private client growth has been quite healthy, at 3.5 to 4 per cent, over the past couple of years.”

In making their selections, the judging panel consisting of experts from the private banking and wealth management industry compared more than 120 banks from 60 countries, using key performance indicators such as portfolio management, asset allocation, due diligence, risk management, growth strategies, customer service, ethical factors, business models, staff retention levels and innovation.

Best Private Bank in Central and Eastern Europe

Erste Private Banking services 16,000 well-to-do clients with a combined wealth of almost EUR 17 billion across its six banking markets. Winning this year’s “Best Private Bank in CEE” award from The Banker and PWM marks the third consecutive year that Erste Group has won this distinguished prize. The banking group was recently also recognized as “Central and Eastern Europe’s Best Bank for Wealth Management” by Euromoney.

“Supportive and straight organizational structures, a realistic sizing of client numbers for each relationship manager, as well as a powerful software environment and training are just a few examples of the measures we’ve implemented and are continuing to implement to further raise the quality of our private banking advisory”, said Wolfgang Traindl.

Best Private Bank in Austria

Together with the Sparkassen, Erste Bank Oesterreich serves 3.4 million clients and is thus one of the largest banking groups in Austria. In its core business – deposit and loan banking – it is focused on private customers, companies and the public sector. Moreover, it is also the market leader in private banking, the investment fund business and building savings plans. Erste Bank Oesterreich’s win in The Banker’s and PWM’s ”Private Banking Awards 2016” marks the third time in four years that it has received the publications’ award for being the best private bank in Austria. The banking group’s private banking activities in Austria recently also garnered it the “Best for Private Banking – Austria" award presented by the specialist publication Wealth and Finance International.

Published by the London-based Financial Times Group, The Banker is a monthly magazine specializing in banking and whose awards and rankings are recognized benchmarks in the international banking industry. PWM Professional Wealth Management, which is also part of the Financial Times Group, provides information and analyses on products, market developments, tax issues and funds for high net-worth individuals.