BA hopes for Burgenland growth
Bank Austria (BA) bosses have said they wanted to increase the institutes focus on private clients in Burgenland.New BA Burgenland chief Andrea Staufer-Waldert said today (Weds) that the bank currently has 52,000 private customers in the eastern province. She added that BAs 13 branches in Burgenland were serving more than 2,100 small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).Staufer-Waldert said she was optimistic that BA would manage to attract more private clients in the area. The banker succeeded Michael Gerbavsits as head of BAs Burgenland branch recently. The businessman was named new chairman of provincial energy provider BEWAG.The new BA Burgenland head also said she was convinced companies in Burgenland would do well this year. Think tanks predicted a 1.8 per cent year on year growth for the provinces economy in 2011.BA is one of Austrias leading banks alongside Raiffeisen and Erste Bank. The Vienna-based institute has around 60,000 employees. Italian bank UniCredit holds a major interest in BA. UniCredits operations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are managed by BA. Agreements say that the Austrian bank will continue to do so at least until 2016.