Vienna International Banking Industry News

Read the latest headlines about developments in the international banking industry in Vienna and Austria

RZB Group Tatra banka among Lead Managers for Slovak Republic EUR 2 Billion Benchmark Bond

Tatra Banka (RZB Group), HSBC, SG CIB and UniCredit Bank Slovakia placed a Slovak Republic issue with a maturity of fifteen years.

October 11, 2010

Raiffeisen Bank International: Official Start of Business

The merger was concluded successfully and effectively with the company's entry into the commercial register. RZB remains unchanged as the central institution of the Raiffeisen Bank Group in Austria and corporate headquarters for the whole RZB Group.

October 11, 2010

Macquarie to take over Innovest from Siemens

The Macquarie Group acquires Siemens' Innovest KAG. Innovest's activities are an important platform for Macquarie Funds Group in Central Europe and fit into the strategy of Macquarie to build a global asset management company.

October 7, 2010

Hypo Alpe-Adria: 25% of the Slovenian Merkur DIY Chain Put Up for Sale

Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International has put up for sale a 25% share of Merkur, the insolvent Slovenian DIY and home improvement products chain, in the daily newspaper "Delo”

October 5, 2010

Brokerjet intends to expand into Poland

The Austrian online broker Brokerjet, a subsidiary of ecetra Central European e-finance AG (ecetra means Erste Bank Central European Trading), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Erste Bank Group, is already active in the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

October 1, 2010

UniCredit SpA has appointed Federico Ghizzoni as its new chief executive

Italy's biggest bank UniCredit SpA named central and eastern European head Federico Ghizzoni its chief executive as expected on Thursday and underscored its commitment to an international role.

October 1, 2010

Vienna now has its own Expat Center

In Vienna, the first Expat Center in Austria was opened. The project was handled by the Vienna Business Agency (former WWFF).

September 30, 2010

Supreme Court: Investors Misled by Meinl European Land Promotional Brochure

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of an investor who was led astray by a MEL-shares promotional brochure. The Meinl Bank describes the ruling as "contradictory," and as "not a good sign for the Austrian capital market."

September 30, 2010

Raiffeisen Invests in New Branches in the Czech Republic

Raiffeisenbank a.s., the fifth largest bank in the Czech Republic, expands its network of branches in the neighboring country.

September 29, 2010

BayernLB has to Wait 7 Years for 3.9 Billion from Carinthia

After the debacle of the Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA), the Bayerische Landesbank will have to wait up to 7 years for the repayment of the 3.9 billion euro. The repayment plan provides for this period.

September 28, 2010

Meinl Bank Pays 6 Million Euro: Airport Intl. and Power Intl. Reach a Partial Agreement

Meinl Bank and International Power pull back all the claims against each other, except those in the arbitration court.

September 27, 2010

Bank Austria: Primeo-investor Wins in First Instance

An investor asked Bank Austria to sell her Primeo participation two months before the Madoff fraud was busted, but Bank Austria has not paid up yet.

September 27, 2010

Austrian Financial Services Discover Immigrants as Customers

Around 1.47 million people living in Austria have a migration background. Therefore, immigrants are an important target group for business. Domestic banks have also been getting into the so-called ethnic banking recently.

September 24, 2010

UniCredit: Andrea Orcel is Possible Successor to Profumo

Andrea Orcel, chief executive of the Global Banking and Markets division of Bank of America Merrill Lynch is rumored to be the favorite in the race to succeed the retiring UniCredit CEO Alessandro Profumo.

September 24, 2010

Elsner Provides Help in Finding Missing Bawag Funds

Former BAWAG CEO wants to clarify the fate of 1.7 billion euro of failed investments allegedly made by the speculator Wolfgang Flöttl to the detriment of BAWAG.

September 24, 2010

Uniqa: Boss Klien Will Leave Mid-2011

The Supervisory Board of Uniqa has decided that CEO Konstantin Klien (59) will retire prematurely in mid 2011.

September 22, 2010

Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) Declined by 80%

Participation in companies and real estate are attractive, but Austrian firms are reluctant to make acquisitions in Eastern Europe.

September 22, 2010

Madoff Fund Report: Enormous Fees Without Any Value Added

After 9.5 years, 50,000 euro would have been eaten up by the "Primeo Select Fund" because of the high fees, is the opinion of an investors’ lawyer about the monies invested by Bank Austria with Bernie Madoff.

September 22, 2010

Profumo Resigns: Bank Austria’s Parent Group UniCredit Under Pressure

The surprise departure of UniCredit CEO Alessandro Profumo is the talk of the town in the financial industry, also in Austria.

September 22, 2010

CEE Banking Sector Report: Still More Credit Losses in the East

The number of bad loans is expected to increase considerably in some Eastern European countries, a Raiffeisen-analysis shows.

September 21, 2010

Austria's Management and Supervisory Boards’ Salaries on the Test Bench

The partly state-run OMV had the most expensive board of all Austrian corporations in 2009. In total, the oil company spent 10.2 million euro on its bosses, 23.4% more than the previous year.

September 20, 2010

CESEE Bank Conference: Joint Supervisory Academy in Vienna

Finance Minister Josef Pröll wants to create common standards for the CEE region with an Eastern Bank Supervisory Academy in Vienna.

September 17, 2010

Hypo Alpe Adria: Greek Entrepreneur Xeniadis Signals his Interest in Buying

The Greek businessman Vasileios Xeniadis is prepared to offer 1.35 billion euro for Hypo Alpe Adria.

September 16, 2010

OeNB: First-time Increase of Banks’ Total Assets Since End of 2008

By the end of June 2010 the unconsolidated total assets of the reporting banks in Austria amounted to 1037.98 billion euro.

September 16, 2010

Volksbank Vorarlberg: High Losses in Switzerland

Commitment to financial advisor JML did not go as desired: losses up to 3.9 million euro

September 15, 2010

Investkredit and ÖVAG: As Of Now, They Have a Common Board

In addition to CEO Gerald Wenzel, Wolfgang Perdich, Martin Fuchsbauer and Michael Mendel are also members of the common board. The merger of both financial institutions is to take place in early 2011.

September 15, 2010

Russian Fund Accuses RZB of Money Laundering

The Russian fund Hermitage Capital, which has been at loggerheads with the Russian authorities for years owing to a major tax fraud case, now accuses the Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) for having aided and abetted the money laundering.

September 14, 2010

Hypo: 700,000 € go from Berlin to KPMG

The auditing firm, formerly headed by the current Hypo-boss Kranebitter, received more money than previously known.

September 13, 2010

Erste Bank intends to become Austria´s leading bank by 2015

Erste Bank, the banking unit of Erste Group responsible for Austria, announced that it was planning to overtake Raiffeisen and become Austria´s leading bank by 2015.

September 10, 2010

Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank - The new Group Press Officer

Dominic Köfner to take on the role of Group Press Officer for Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG (HGAA)

September 9, 2010

VBAG Group result for the first half of 2010: positive development continued

In the second quarter of 2010, Österreichische Volksbanken-AG (VBAG) Group confirmed the turnaround of the first quarter.

September 3, 2010

Raiffeisen Centrobank AG - Interim Financial Report released

Raiffeisen Centrobank made the biggest contribution to the result of the group with a profit after tax of EUR 14.401 mn.

August 31, 2010

Kommunalkredit back in black

Kommunalkredit AG earned €7.5m ($9.5) net, in the first half of 2010. It is the first period since the split in November 2009; a comparison with the previous year is therefore limited.

August 30, 2010

Investkredit back in black

Institute earned €9.6m ($12.24) in the first 6 months.

August 30, 2010

Austrian Banks in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe

According to a recent comparative study from the Austrian Central Bank (OeNB), the long-term commitment of Austrian banks in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) offers good prospects.

August 27, 2010

Meinl Bank compensates MEL-investors

The next 600 small investors may get back a third of their losses with MEL-papers. Overall Meinl Bank wants to pay out 3.2m ($4) and then retrieve the money from financial institutions.

August 20, 2010

AWS - Increasing demand for small loans

According to the Austria Economic Service (AWS) a significant increase in demand for small loans was registered in the first half of 2010.

August 17, 2010

Head of Erste Bank Treichl advocates stress test ranking

"Then, investors can visualize the results," said Treichl after a bankers' meeting with Trichet.

July 22, 2010

Austria attracts World Bank

Austria has concluded agreements for an official residence of the World Bank Group. It provides privileges similar to those of diplomats for employees of the international organization.

July 22, 2010

Hungary gives bank tax its blessing

The new Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will not abandon the highly controversial tax, as decided in Parliament.

July 22, 2010

Banks' equity - "Basel III costs 46 000 jobs"

The stricter rules for the equity of banks will reduce lending by up to 20 percent, says the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna.

July 21, 2010

Constantia Packaging - shareholders will be reconciled with €47

The new owners of Constantia Packaging make cash payment of €47 ($60.61) per share to its minority shareholders.

July 20, 2010

East-Europe Bank - "Hungary carries risks of infection"

The proposed bank tax against the wishes of the IMF is not a good sign, says the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

July 20, 2010

Hungary rejects additional austerity measures

Hardened front between the Hungarian government on the one hand and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU on the other side: highly-indebted Hungary has ruled out further austerity measures.

July 19, 2010

Banks threaten with drastic job cuts

Bankers warnings on impact of the stricter financial rules, five to ten thousand jobs are threatened.

July 19, 2010

Stress tests - according to Cernko, Austrian Banks in the bottom third

Referring to speculation according to which Austrian banks with their relatively low equity ratio should not perform that well, Bank Austria CEO Willibald Cernko said "If one considers capital only, they will be at the top of the bottom third."

July 15, 2010

Stress tests could be price-sensitive information

At the political level it is fiercely debated how detailed the publication of the stress test should be. The FMA currently tests whether the stress test results are stock market relevant, compulsory publications.

July 14, 2010

UniCredit's Profumo proposes 20-billion rescue fund

Head of Bank-Austria parent UniCredit, Alessandro Profumo, has announced his ambitions for a privately financed € 20 billion heavy rescue fund for troubled European banks.

July 12, 2010

Transaction tax - OECD European solo attempt

According to Jeffrey Owens, head of the OECD's tax department, a transaction tax only makes sense if it relates to the financial centres on a global scale.

July 12, 2010

Pröll on economic status quo, "thunder and lightning are over"

The EU has demonstrated that "it is able to act in one of the worst crises, even if there were some mistakes," says Austrian Finance Minister Josef Pröll.

July 12, 2010