Erste Group Bank AG announced an extraordinary meeting held on June 15, 2022, the Supervisory Board of company appointed Willi Cernko as the new CEO of the company, effective 1 July 2022. As CEO, Cernko succeeds Bernd Spalt, who had previously announced that he would not seek a renewal of his contract. Willi Cernko has been the Chief Corporates Officer in the Management Board of Erste Bank Oesterreich since 2019.

He was a member of the Management Board of Erste Group from 2017 to 2019. Before joining Erste, Cernko was CEO of UniCredit Bank Austria AG and spent more than 20 years in many different management roles at Bank Austria, HypoVereinsbank and in the UniCredit Group. In addition to his proven expertise in corporate and retail banking, Cernko also has very broad experience in Erste Group's core markets.

His current term of office with Erste remains unaffected and runs until 31 December 2024.