FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Commerzbank is getting its next board member from Austria: Bernd Spalt, former head of Austria's Erste Group Bank, will take over as head of risk at the Frankfurt-based DAX-listed group on January 1, 2024, succeeding Marcus Chromik.

As a former member of the Management Board of Erste Group and Erste Bank Austria, Spalt has "many years of experience in all areas of risk management", Commerzbank announced on the occasion of the manager's appointment in September. Spalt was CEO of Erste Group Bank AG from January 2020 to the end of June 2022.

His predecessor Chromik had been Commerzbank's Head of Risk since January 1, 2016. Chromik had informed the Commerzbank Supervisory Board in July 2022 that he would fulfill his contract, which runs until the end of 2023, but would not accept a possible offer of an extension.

Spalt is not the first member of the Commerzbank Board of Managing Directors to have spent a career at the Austrian bank: Sabine Mlnarsky, Head of Human Resources since January 2023, and Thomas Schaufler, Head of Private Clients since the end of 2021, also previously worked at Erste Group Bank./ben/DP/he