2023-04-21 19:09:39
DThese decisions are the first high-profile accent that Marion Höllinger is setting in her new office. Since the beginning of March, the 51-year-old Höllinger has been spokeswoman for the board of directors of the Hypo-Vereinsbank (HVB), which belongs to the Italian Unicredit, in Munich and is therefore the successor to Michael Diederich, who switched to FC Bayern as CFO. Höllinger does not need any training period, she knows HVB inside out after almost 32 years of service. In September 1991 she began an apprenticeship at the Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank in the Eggenfelden branch, a predecessor institute of the Hypo-Vereinsbank. In August 2021 she joined the board, responsible for private customers. Now, along with Ingrid Hengster (Barclays) and Christl Novakovic (UBS), she is one of the few women to run a bank based in Germany.
And Höllinger knows how to set signals. It begins with the streamlining of the executive board, which is quite lavishly staffed. And it shows that banking business today must primarily be organized digitally so that it can then be operated digitally to a large extent. Therefore, by the end of 2023, Artur Gruca will be responsible for relocating all operating units (“Operations”) to the digital division. This should simplify the digitization of processes and accelerate the transformation of the bank, as stated in a press release by HVB on Friday. However, that does not mean that the banking business will become completely digital: in the real estate loan business, for example, the banking supervisory authority does not (yet) allow electronic signatures.
Almost all companies and banks are planning to become more digital. However, they often fail to make the business decision as to which products they still need. Instead of establishing a digital process and interfaces for all products, it can make sense to initially curtail the proliferation of products. HVB only has four current account models.
Staff reductions ordered by the end of 2024
In addition, in December 2021, HVB received savings targets from its parent company Unicredit. HVB, which has operated almost unchanged 300 branches since 2007, works more efficiently than other banks. In 2022, she spent almost 50 cents to redeem one euro. However, HVB, which employed almost 12,000 people at the end of 2022, is to cut 1,100 jobs by the end of 2024.
Höllinger is now showing right from the start that she doesn’t stop at the board of directors when it comes to saving. The 41-year-old Boris Skukanec Hopinski will leave the board on April 30, as announced on Friday. He has decided not to take on any other tasks in the Unicredit Group. With Höllinger, the HVB board now has seven members.
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