Scepticism and uncertainty will dominate financial markets until May-June 2008, when all the major banks and financial services firms that are not listed on the Stock Exchange will have published their detailed financial figures for 2007, says Andreas Treichl, Erste Bank CEO and chairman of BCR supervisory board.
Treichl lashes out at the "irresponsible greedy, bankers, who, in their rush for profits, bet and lost shareholders' money".
"They should take responsibility for what they did," stated Erste head during a speech delivered at the Economic University of Vienna on his being awarded the manager of year 2007 title. He was awarded for the successful vision related to the expansion of Erste Bank in Central and Eastern Europe. "One cannot be a good manager without a good team," says Treichl.
Another renowned visionary of banking acquisitions in the region, Herbert Stepic, CEO at Raiffeisen International, managing Raiffeisen group's Central and East-European operations, describes Treichl as "a man who through his personality fascinates and motives shareholders, customers and employees".
Treichl recounts some of the managers of major US banks have already lost their positions amid losses generated by the too risky exposures, but considers the necessary conclusions from their actions have not been drawn, yet.
He speaks of a correction on the international banking market, but one can also speak of a "healthy crisis" as long as this does not hit the real economy too hard.
"Uncertainty will undoubtedly maintain in the next three quarters," forecasts Treichl.
Erste Bank shares have been fully hit by the loss of confidence on the market in the wake of losses registered by major banks, with the price dropping by almost 15% in the past month, to close to the 50-euro mark. This happened even though the Q3 figures were viewed as "good" and in line with expectations by analysts and potential losses generated by the subprime crisis were put by Erste at merely 20 million euros.
Treichl considers this crisis also raises the question of the "optimal size" of a banking institution, saying that in the groups that operate with hundreds of thousands of people in networks of branches spread all over the world, the top management cannot get a clear picture of each department of the bank. He believes the extent of the current crisis is generating an opportunity for banks to revert to reasonable sizes.
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