Frauke Hegemann is appointed new CEO of comdirect bank AG

• Arno Walter has decided today to resign his mandate as CEO of comdirect bank AG and intends to end his contract as of the end of 2019
• From January, he will be appointed member of the Divisional Board of Commerzbank AG, responsible for Wealth Management and Corporate Clients. He will be in charge of the integration project of the planned merger of comdirect bank AG with Commerzbank AG
• Walter will be succeeded by Frauke Hegemann, as COO responsible for operations and human resources, who has been shaping and implementing comdirect's strategy since April 2018 as Chief Representative and since April 2019 as a Member of the Management Board
• With Hegemann, a strong woman has been appointed as new leader who has already been shaping comdirect's successful course over the last year and has in particular driven forward the digitalisation of the Customer Management

Quickborn, 17 December 2019. At the start of the New Year, there will be a change of the Management Board of comdirect bank AG. Going forward, the Management Board will consist of three members.

Arno Walter is leaving the company
Arno Walter has resigned as CEO of comdirect bank AG. He intends to terminate his contract effective at the end of 2019. From January 2020, he will be member of the Divisional Board of Commerzbank AG, responsible for Wealth Management and Corporate Clients. In addition, he will be in charge of the integration project with respect to the possible merger between comdirect bank AG and Commerzbank AG. The worlds of comdirect and Commerzbank are to be joined in the best possible way with regards to innovation and digitalisation. "Over the last five years, Arno Walter has turned comdirect into a strongly growing and innovative company and has shaped comdirect's success story significantly. With a clear strategy, comdirect has been winning more than 800 thousand net new customers and increasing assets under custody by around € 44 billion, while continuously achieving double-digit ROEs. "We would like to express our gratitude for this strong achievement." says Jochen Sutor, Head of the Supervisory Board of comdirect bank AG. "We wish for him to succeed in his new role and all the best."

Frauke Hegemann is appointed new CEO
From January, Frauke Hegemann, 43, will be leading comdirect bank AG as CEO. As COO, she has been Member of the Management Board of comdirect bank AG since April 2019. In addition to the areas of Customer Management and Human Resources, Hegemann is responsible for Legal, Data Protection & Organisation, Information Security & Outsourcing Management, and Building Finance and Provisioning. Furthermore, she is a member of the Supervisory Board of the comdirect Versicherungsmakler AG.

Hegemann has been with comdirect since April 2018 and had already taken over her responsibilities of designated Member of the Management Board as Chief Representative. She was appointed Member of the Management Board in April 2019. Amongst other things, she has been driving the digital development of the Customer Management using Artificial Intelligence. She is bringing extensive management and leadership experience which she gained in various functions at Commerzbank AG.

"With Frauke Hegemann, we are very pleased to have an excellent successor at the head of comdirect who, with her expertise and holistic view on the customer, has helped shape the strategy successfully over the last years, as well as the further digitalisation and scalability of the Customer Management." says Sutor. "In particular in current times, we are counting on his strengths to shape comdirect's future together with his colleagues of the Management Board."

Contacts for this press release
Annette Siragusano
Tel. +49 (0) 41 06/704-1960
E-mail:

Ullrike Hamer
Tel. +49 (0) 41 06/704-1545
E-mail:

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