Europay International, MasterCard International's European affiliate, named a chief executive officer on Tuesday to succeed Louis-Noel Joly, who is to retire in November.
Peter Hoch, who is a vice chairman of Europay and has been on its board of directors since the company's inception in 1992, is to take over as CEO in October.
Mr. Joly, 63, has been Europay's CEO since June 1996, when he came out of retirement to accept the post. Previously he was a top executive at Societe Generale, and he was a founder of the French banking company's card operations utility, Cartes Bancaires. He is credited with smoothing over tensions that had existed between Europay and its U.S. affiliate; MasterCard owns 12% of Waterloo, Belgium-based Europay.
Mr. Hoch, 59, is a veteran card banker who from 1986 to 1992 was on the board of Eurocheque International, which merged with Eurocard to form Europay. He has been a member of MasterCard's global board since 1994.
His appointment coincides with a new strategic direction at Europay, which is being reorganized in accord with three types of services: classic, virtual, and operating. Virtual services are to be created to help member banks on Internet-related initiatives; classic and operating services are to build on existing infrastructures.
In a statement, Mr. Joly said he has "total confidence" that Mr. Hoch "possesses all the qualities necessary to guide Europay through this critical phase in its corporate evolution."
