As announced by EBA Chairman Wolfgang Ehrmann today at the payments conference of the Euro Finance Week in Frankfurt, Thomas Egner will take over the reins from long-time Secretary General Gilbert Lichter in the second quarter of 2016. At that point in time, Gilbert Lichter will retire from the position, which he has been holding for over 26 years.

Thomas Egner has been engaged in transaction banking for more than 23 years, most recently as Director, Banking Operations Unit, Process Management Payments at Commerzbank, where he has been responsible for defining and developing clearing and settlement strategies, mainly in the sector of mass payments. He has been a member of the bank’s SEPA Program Management Team and was responsible for implementing the Payment Services Directive (PSD) within Commerzbank.

Representing Commerzbank in the European Payments Council and the German banking community in SWIFT and ISO committees, Thomas Egner has helped to shape the European payments landscape over the last 15 years. In addition, he has contributed to the implementation of SEPA at a national level through his participation in several German payment committees. He has further been serving as a Board member of EBA CLEARING, the provider of the pan-European payment infrastructure services EURO1, STEP1 and STEP2, since 2004.

“We are happy to entrust Thomas Egner with the responsibility to further pursue the EBA’s mission of driving and contributing to the delivery of pan-European co-operative payment initiatives and business practices. With Thomas Egner in the cockpit, the EBA will also continue to actively support its members in deepening their understanding of regulatory requirements and important innovation factors, and their practical implications in a rapidly changing and complex payments environment. We wish Thomas Egner the best of success in his future role as Secretary General of the EBA Association,”
said Wolfgang Ehrmann, Chairman of the EBA.
“On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Gilbert Lichter for his contribution in forming and steering the EBA for more than 26 years. He has led the EBA on an extraordinarily successful path and it was due to his doing that the EBA fostered the development of euro payment infrastructures by delivering the payment systems EURO1, STEP1 and STEP2.”