Österreichische Postsparkasse (, , abbr. P.S.K.) was a postal savings bank in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. It was owned by the Austrian Post Office and thus by the government. It merged on 1 October 2005 with the

BAWAG BAWAG (Abbreviation of , , ) was a bank in Austria founded in 1922. On October 1, 2005, it merged with the separate ''Österreichische Postsparkasse'' (P.S.K.) to form the "Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft und Österreichische Postsparkasse AG", s ...

to form BAWAG P.S.K.

History

During the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Österreichische Postsparkasse was founded by law in 1882. On 28 May, the parliamentary bill "...on the introduction of postal savings banks in kingdoms and countries represented by the Imperial Assembly" was passed in the Imperial Council (''Reichsrat''). The government bill was drawn up by Georg Coch, the founder and first director of the bank. The first headquarters of the "k.k. Postsparcassen-Amt" (Imperial-Royal Postal Savings Office) was opened on 12 January 1883 in the former Dominican Monastery building on Wollzeile street in the first Viennese district

Innere Stadt The Innere Stadt (; ; "Inner City") is the 1st municipal Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the I ...

. About 4,000 post office branches located throughout the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

began offering their postal savings service to customers. The idea behind offering financial services at post offices was to promote public awareness and encourage saving. The added benefit of the system was to make important funds available to the state and to guarantee the security of the deposits with government liability. In October 1883, Coch introduced a revolutionary innovation, the system of cashless transfers (''Scheckverkehr''), whereby a written instruction authorised the debit of one account and the credit to another. This radically changed the monetary system and made the P.S.K. into the centre of payment transactions. The new system of cashless transfers started spreading throughout the world.P.S.K. History: A look back at over 120 years of banking history and tradition
/ref> The bank also saw the expansion of the foreign payment transaction system. Giro agreements were signed with the

Austro-Hungarian Bank The Austro-Hungarian Bank (, , , , , , ) was the central bank of the Habsburg Monarchy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The institution was founded in 1816 as the privilegirte oesterreichische National-Bank (), and changed its name in 1878 ...

and other foreign postal savings bank throughout Europe. In 1906 the new headquarters building in Vienna designed by the architect

Otto Wagner Otto Koloman Wagner (; 13 July 1841 – 11 April 1918) was an Austrian architect, furniture designer and urban planner. He was a leading member of the Vienna Secession movement of architecture, founded in 1897, and the broader Art Nouveau mo ...

was constructed. It is located at what is today Georg-Coch-Platz in the first district Innere Stadt along the

Ringstraße The Ringstrasse or Ringstraße (pronounced Help:IPA/Standard German, �ɪŋˌʃtʁaːsə:File:De-Ringstraße.ogg, ⓘ, lit. ''ring road'') is a 5.3 km (3.3 mi) circular grand boulevard that serves as a ring road around the historic city centre, ...

boulevard. The building is one of the most important examples of Viennese

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

which is also known as The

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

. Its clear lines and the usage of steel, concrete and glass give the building a solid and impenetrable look. The

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History O ...

in the main hall allows for natural light to reach the interior of the building. The headquarters building became the most recognisable trademark of the postal savings bank.

World War I and aftermath

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

dealt a heavy blow to the bank. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, its areas of activity were restricted to the much smaller, newly founded Austrian Republic. As a result, the number of post office branches was heavily reduced from 7,000 to around 2,000. On 28 December 1926, parliament passed a new law which liberalised the P.S.K., transferring it from direct state administration and control into a separate, independent legal entity as a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

. Following the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

of Austria to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

from 1938 to 1945, the P.S.K. was dissolved as a legal entity by the Nazis, and all assets were transferred to Germany.

Rebirth and merger

After the liberation and the restoration of Austria, the postal savings bank was re-founded on 26 April 1945, as Österreichische Postsparkassenamt. It was the first Viennese banking institute to resume its services and was under the direct control of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance. It remained under the direct control of the ministry until 1 January 1970, when the 1969 Postal Savings Bank Act ()P.S.K. Firmengeschichte , Rückblick auf 120 Jahre Bankgeschichte und Tradition
/ref> came into effect. The bank regained its pre-war status as an independent legal entity in form of a public company. Österreichische Postsparkasse, as it was now called, was however required to further follow the monetary and fiscal policy of the Austrian Federal Government in its business dealings and to support the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) in all currency and lending policies. The Federal Government assumed liability for all P.S.K. obligations in return for the right to half of the annual

net profit In business and Accountancy, accounting, net income (also total comprehensive income, net earnings, net profit, bottom line, sales profit, or credit sales) is an entity's income minus cost of goods sold, expenses, depreciation and Amortization (a ...

. The law formed the starting point for a new business strategy aimed at creating a market-oriented range of services. The strategy seemed to work well, as the bank grew and was able to further consolidate its position in 1976, when it purchased the majority stake in the Appell Kunden-Kredit Teilzahlungsbank regGenmbH, which was one year later converted into a full bank under the name Bank der Österreichischen Postsparkasse AG (P.S.K. Bank AG). The 1990s saw substantial change for the bank. In 1996,

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

passed a law to change the P.S.K. into a

joint stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certifi ...

(). The following year, the Federal Ministry of Finance allowed the P.S.K. to grant private

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

s. With the award of the license the bank secured preferential treatment for financing of companies that are majority-owned by the government. The P.S.K. registered with the company register at the Vienna commercial court. The bank also was listed on the

Vienna Stock Exchange Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. The Austrian government was liable for any financial obligations of the newly listed company. With the new restructuring, a new agreement was signed between the P.S.K. and the Austrian Mail Service of how the post offices would continue to offer the financial services. In 2000, 74.82% of the bank's shares were bought by Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft AG (BAWAG) and the remaining 25.18% by KSP Unternehmensbeteiligungsgesellschaft mbH. The merger of the two financial institutes created the BAWAG P.S.K., making it Austria’s third-largest banking group. By 2000 the

balance sheet In financial accounting, a balance sheet (also known as statement of financial position or statement of financial condition) is a summary of the financial balances of an individual or organization, whether it be a sole proprietorship, a business ...

had a total of almost 45 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s and the new group had about 5000 employees, some 2000 outlets and over one million private customers. The BAWAG P.S.K. Group now has the largest centrally managed sales network in Austria.

Areas of activity

The bank's services cover the classical areas of

retail banking Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking (corporate ...

and

corporate banking Wholesale banking is the provision of services by banks to larger customers or organizations such as mortgage brokers, large corporate clients, mid-sized companies, real estate developers and investors, international trade finance businesses, i ...

. Apart from offering financial services, the bank also sponsors cultural events such as art exhibitions, especially on the Viennese Jugendstil, concerts, as well as donating for social issues such as fundraisers for victims of natural disasters.

References

Literature

* *

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osterreichische Postsparkasse Banks of Austria Postal savings system Postal system of Austria de:BAWAG P.S.K. fr:Österreichische Post ru:BAWAG P.S.K.