OREANDA-NEWS. CEO Ralph Hamers and Head of Challengers and Growth Markets Aris Bogdaneris have announced the appointment of Alessandro Decio, as new CEO of ING Bank Italy.

Alessandro will join ING on 1 March.

He succeeds Don Koch who, for the time being, will work on a number of important Asian-related projects.

Alessandro joins ING after 15 years with the Unicredit Group, where he held several positions in different geographies, culminating in his role as Group Chief Risk Officer (CRO) and member of the CEO Office and the Executive Management Committee.

He started his career as a McKinsey consultant, later joining the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development where he worked for over five years. Alessandro joined Unicredit in 2000, where he was responsible for Unicredit's international development and later its operations in Croatia, Bulgaria and Turkey. Alessandro assumed overall responsibility for the global retail business in 2010 and was appointed Group CRO in 2012.

Alessandro will build on Don's good work by concentrating on innovation and the customer experience to increase ING's position in the Italian market.

Don was appointed as CEO Italy in 2012, and led the creation of a domestic bank by merging ING Direct Italy and Wholesale Banking businesses. He also oversaw a number of significant change programmes which have positioned the business for its next stage of growth.

Prior to his role in Italy, Don was CEO of ING Direct Australia. He has also spent time in Poland, India and Thailand.