UniCredit Bank Austria AG, branded and widely referred to as Bank Austria, is an Austrian bank, 96.35% owned by
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
-based
UniCredit
UniCredit S.p.A. is an international banking group headquartered in Milan. It is Italy's only systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world's 34th largest by assets. It was for ...
. It was formed in 1991 by merger of Vienna's
Länderbank
The Länderbank, full original name k. k. privilegierte Österreichische Länderbank () was a major Austrian bank, created in 1880. In 1922 its head office was moved to Paris under the name Banque des Pays de l'Europe Centrale (BPEC, german: Zen ...
and
Zentralsparkasse
UniCredit Bank Austria AG, branded and widely referred to as Bank Austria, is an Austrian bank, 96.35% owned by Milan-based UniCredit. It was formed in 1991 by merger of Vienna's Länderbank and Zentralsparkasse, acquired Creditanstalt-Bankvere ...
, acquired
Creditanstalt-Bankverein
The Creditanstalt (sometimes Credit-Anstalt, abbreviated as CA), full original name k. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (), was a major Austrian bank, founded in 1855 in Vienna.
From its founding until 1931, th ...
in 1997, and merged with it to form Bank Austria-Creditanstalt (BA-CA) in 2002. Its name reverted to Bank Austria in 2008, as UniCredit, the bank's owner since 2005, phased out the history-laden Creditanstalt brand.
History
Bank Austria was formed in 1991 by the merger of the troubled
Länderbank
The Länderbank, full original name k. k. privilegierte Österreichische Länderbank () was a major Austrian bank, created in 1880. In 1922 its head office was moved to Paris under the name Banque des Pays de l'Europe Centrale (BPEC, german: Zen ...
and Vienna's
Zentralsparkasse
UniCredit Bank Austria AG, branded and widely referred to as Bank Austria, is an Austrian bank, 96.35% owned by Milan-based UniCredit. It was formed in 1991 by merger of Vienna's Länderbank and Zentralsparkasse, acquired Creditanstalt-Bankvere ...
, in practice a takeover of the former by the latter led by its general director ; the merged entity became Austria's largest bank. In 1996, the Austrian government announced the privatization of
Creditanstalt-Bankverein
The Creditanstalt (sometimes Credit-Anstalt, abbreviated as CA), full original name k. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (), was a major Austrian bank, founded in 1855 in Vienna.
From its founding until 1931, th ...
, in which it held a majority stake. In January 1997, Bank Austria acquired the stake for about 1.25 billion euros. In turn, Bank Austria sold a majority stake it held in GiroCredit for 8.24 billion schillings (about 600 million euros) to
Erste Bank
Erste Group Bank AG (Erste Group) is an Austrian financial service provider in Central and Eastern Europe serving 15.7 million clients in over 2,700 branches in seven countries.
History
Erste Group was founded in October 1819 as ''Erste öster ...
. In February 1998, the state sold its last shares and the remaining shares on the market were exchanged with shares in Bank Austria, and Creditanstalt was delisted from the
Vienna Stock Exchange
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
.
In stages from 2000 to 2002,
HVB Group
UniCredit Bank AG, better known under its brand name HypoVereinsbank (HVB), is the fifth-largest of the German financial institutions, ranked according to its total assets, and the fourth-largest bank in Germany according to the number of its e ...
took over Bank Austria. Subsequently in 2002, Bank Austria's shares were delisted, and Bank Austria and Creditanstalt merged to form Bank Austria-Creditanstalt. An assets exchange procedure led to the transfert of HVB's assets in central and eastern Europe to Bank Austria, and reversely. The new BA-CA's shares were offered to the public through an
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in 2003.
In June 2005 Italian group UniCredit announced the acquisition of HypoVereinsbank, along with BA-CA. Restructuring led to the creation of a new holding for BA-CA foreign assets in eastern Europe, the transformation of the Polish activity to a full affiliate, the shrinking of BA-CA per se to a smaller market, and the shrinking of HVB to the German market. In order to respect cartel restriction in
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
, BA-CA's affiliate
Splitska banka
Splitska banka was a Croatian banking company based in Split, Croatia. It was one of the largest banks in Croatia. On 1 December 2018, it merged into OTP Bank Group.
History
It was established in 1965 in Split, Croatia. In April 2000 it was ...
was sold to
Société Générale
Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense.
Société Générale ...
, for UniCredit already owned
Zagrebačka banka
Zagrebačka banka d.d. is the largest bank in Croatia, owned by UniCredit group of Italy. It was the first Croatian bank to become fully privatised in 1989 and the first one to be listed at the Zagreb Stock Exchange in 1995. It is one of 24 compan ...
. BA-CA acquired
Koç Finansal Hizmetler Koç () is a Turkish word that may refer to: Surname
* Ahmet Koç, bağlama artist from Turkey
* Ali Yıldırım Koç (born 1967), Turkish businessman
* Anıl Koç (born 1995), Turkish-Belgian footballer
* Atilla Koç (born, 1946), Turkish polit ...
(Turkey), Zagrebačka banka (Croatia),
Bulbank
UniCredit Bulbank is the largest bank of Bulgaria. Before 1994, the bank was known as the Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank or BFTB. UniCredit Bulbank was formed in 2007 as a merger between Bulbank, Biochim, and Hebros Bank, all of them owned by the U ...
(Bulgaria),
Živnostenska banka (Czechia),
UniBanka
SEB banka (formerly ''Latvijas Unibanka'', then ''SEB Latvijas Unibanka'') is one of the largest banks in Latvia and a part of the Swedish SEB Group. Nowadays, its main rivals in the Latvian banking market are Swedbank, Luminor and Citadele ban ...
(Slovakia) and
UniCredit Romania from UniCredit in that operation.
In 2006 BA-CA continued its expansion in Russia by acquiring remaining shares in
International Moscow Bank
AO UniCredit Bank is a Russian bank headquartered in Moscow. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Italy-based UniCredit Group.
History
ZAO International Moscow Bank (IMB) was founded on 19 October 1989. In 2005, Bank Austria along with its pare ...
and 100% of institutional business of
Aton Capital
ATON LLC is one of the oldest investment companies in Russia. It was founded in 1991, sold to UniCredit group in 2007 and recreated in 2009. ATON operates in 30 Russian cities. ATON’s headquarter is in Moscow.
History
December 20, 2006 ATON Ca ...
- a Russian brokerage. Moreover, Kazakh bank ATFBank was acquired in 2007.
Since 31 March 2008, the bank has been operating under the brand name "Bank Austria" and has a new logo to show the connection to the UniCredit Group. It had the strongest capital base among the large banks in Austria, its Core Tier 1 ratio amounted to 10.55% and its Total Capital ratio to 12.7% as of 31 December 2011.
In 2016, UniCredit took back from Bank Austria direct ownership of its affiliates in Central and Eastern Europe. Also as of 2016, Bank Austria was managed by CEO Robert Zadrazil, and its Chairman was Erich Hampel.
Controversy
The 2000s saw the bank in the middle of substantial litigation around trustee
Rudolfine Steindling
Rudolfine Steindling (September 10, 1934 – October 27, 2012 in Tel Aviv) was an Austrian manager and political activist with close ties to Communist organizations. She is alleged by German authorities to have stolen 130 million Euro (240 mil ...
's transfer of former East German, now German, money to her own accounts. In 2010 a Swiss court ruled
Der Standard, Austrian newspaper in German
/ref> that the predecessor Länderbank
The Länderbank, full original name k. k. privilegierte Österreichische Länderbank () was a major Austrian bank, created in 1880. In 1922 its head office was moved to Paris under the name Banque des Pays de l'Europe Centrale (BPEC, german: Zen ...
had broken the law by aiding her to channel away the money and had to pay €240 million but a higher court overruled this decision on formal grounds.
See also
* Erste Group
Erste Group Bank AG (Erste Group) is an Austrian financial service provider in Central and Eastern Europe serving 15.7 million clients in over 2,700 branches in seven countries.
History
Erste Group was founded in October 1819 as ''Erste öster ...
* Raiffeisen Bank International
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is an Austrian banking group and a central institution of the Raiffeisen Banking Group Austria (RBG). The bank is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, with RBG's regional banks its major shareholders.
RBI was ...
* Banking in Austria
This article is intended to give an overview of banking in Austria.
Banking system Regulations
Since the introduction of the Kreditwesensgesetz (KWG) in 1979, the boundaries between the various types of credit institutions have gradually become ...
* List of banks in Austria
The following is a list of banks in Austria (as of 14 November 2019), as well as those that are defunct:
Banks
*Addiko Bank
* Allianz Investmentbank
* AlpenBank
* American Express
*Anglo Irish Bank
* Austrian AAB Bank AG
* Autobank AG
*Banco ...
* List of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Securities
Investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC lost billions of dollars in the Madoff investment scandal, a Ponzi scheme fraud conducted by Bernard Madoff. The amount missing from client accounts, over two thirds of which were fabricat ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Banks of Austria
UniCredit subsidiaries
Companies based in Vienna