Norbert Fritsch announces retirement

Forfaiting legend Norbert Fritsch is set to retire from Hypovereinsbank (HVB) in December after more than 30 years in banking. It follows his retirement from the board of the International Forfaiting Association (IFA) after completing a tenure of two terms.

While he will continue helping the IFA as an advisor, he will be barred from actively engaging in forfaiting for one-year following his departure from HVB. “But that doesn’t really bother me because I have so many private activities to be doing,” he says.

That includes starting the skiing season in Austria at the end of November, before returning to the piste in mid-December when he finally leaves HVB. He is also planning to go mountain biking more often, as well as hiking in the Swiss Alps. Besides his sports activities he wants to further improve his painting and cooking skills.

“And in addition, I became a grandfather in July and have a very demanding grandson,” he says.

Fritsch, whose family crossed the border from East Berlin to West Berlin in 1960 just months before the Berlin Wall was erected, studied economics at university in Munich and joined Bayerische Vereinsbank (BV) in 1976.

Following a training programme run by Philadelphia National Bank and the prestigious Wharton Business School, Fritsch joined BV’s North American desk and worked his way up through various roles in trade finance to his current position as Global Head of Structured Trade Finance, Forfaiting, at HVB/UniCredit Group.

See the Dec/Jan issue for our Profile of Norbert Fritsch. To secure your copy of Trade & Forfaiting Review, please email Natalie Adams, nadams@ark-group.com.