On behalf of ICC’s Chairman Marcus Wallenberg, ICC Secretary General Guy Sebban has appointed Regina Prehofer of Bank Austria Creditanstalt as the new Chair of the ICC Banking Commission. Ms Prehofer will be the first woman and the first Austrian to chair an ICC commission.

In his letter to Ms Prehofer confirming her appointment, Mr Sebban said: “We are confident that your impressive credentials and long experience in managerial posts at Bank Austria Creditanstalt will make you an excellent Chair.”

Ms Prehofer has been a member of the managing board at Bank Austria in Vienna since 2003. In her more than 25 years in banking, she has risen rapidly through the ranks to hold a number of management positions, as Head of Trade and International Project Finance, Head of the Division of Multinational Corporates and Insurance and Head of the Corporate Customers Division.

In recent years, Ms Prehofer has taken on additional responsibility for the bank’s activities in central and eastern Europe. Bank Austria has played an increasingly important role in this region, where particularly strong growth in investment, trade and the use of letters of credit have generated increasing membership for the ICC Banking Commission.

In her opening remarks to the commission meeting in Paris, Ms Prehofer said: “You and your commission have a worldwide reputation for excellence. Your rules on letters of credit … as well as those on collections and guarantees, are used by practitioners in virtually every country. No other private organization can claim a record as impressive as this one.”

Ms Prehofer will serve a three-year renewable term as Chair. She replaces Dieter Kiefer from Union Bank of Switzerland, who has ably headed the commission for the last 10 years.