Austria's Volksbank brings Lucian Cojocaru from BRD to run retail operations

Volksbank, the third largest bank domestically in terms of assets, brought Lucian Cojocaru, commercial manager of BRD-SocGen for the past eight years, to the position of vice-president in charge with retail operations.

"I now have the opportunity to take advantage of the experience accumulated with BRD to develop retail operations again, but in a different market context," Lucian Cojocaru told ZF.

He will take over the position with Volksbank starting September 15.

Volksbank has almost exclusively relied on sales of mortgages and home equity loans to rapidly expand in recent years, while BRD has had a balanced approach between providing trading services and selling loans. French BRD even preferred a more low-profile presence on real estate, so that it has not entered direct competition with Volksbank.

Austria's Volksbank has been trying in recent months to attract a banker from its rivals, from the second tier of management, mulling several options after it failed to persuade a vice-president.

The position of retail vice-president has been vacant since last autumn, when Roxana Bolocan went on maternal leave.