In his new Budapest-based role, Wiedner succeeds Péter Felcsuti, who headed the bank for more than 20 years and whose contract expires at the end of this year, the firm said in a statement. Wiedner will be overseeing private banking and wealth management operations among other responsibilities, a spokesperson told WealthBriefing.

Wiedner has been a member of the managing board at Raiffeisen International since 2001, with his appointment predating the company's initial public offering in April 2005. Since being appointed chief operating officer in 2003, Wiedner had been responsible for all organisational, IT, and operational processes within the group.

Moreover, his country responsibilities as a Raiffeisen International board member included Hungary, among other others. Wiedner spent time in Romania as the project manager supervising the merger between the local Raiffeisen Bank (founded 1998) and Banca Agricola (acquired 2001).

Wiedner joined RZB in 1993 as the department head for payment services. Before that, he held various international positions at Citigroup for 16 years.

"With Heinz Wiedner we have chosen someone who has very extensive knowledge of both Hungary and Raiffeisen Bank due to the fact that he has served as the Raiffeisen International board member responsible for the market. This provides the ideal basis for safeguarding our Hungarian subsidiary's continued development in what is a generally challenging market situation," said Herbert Stepic, chief executive at Raiffeisen International and chairman of Raiffeisen Bank's board of directors. Raiffeisen is headquartered in Vienna.