Raiffeisen Central Bank Austria

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  Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG
The RZB headquarters in Vienna (2012) Headquarters of the former RZB, today RBI
Country AustriaAustria Austria
Seat Vienna 3
legal form Corporation
founding 1927
resolution Merged with RBI on March 18, 2017

Template: Infobox_Kreditinstitut / Maintenance / ID is missing

The Raiffeisen Zentralbank Austria AG ( RZB ) was until 2017, the central institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group (RBG). It also acted as the central holding company of the RZB Group for domestic and foreign subsidiaries. The largest of its holdings was the listed Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) with its international banking network with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe ( CEE ).

In 2016 it was decided to merge RZB and RBI. After the merger in March 2017, the company has been trading as Raiffeisen Bank International AG since then. As universal legal successor, RBI took over all of the rights, obligations and tasks of the transferring company RZB.

The RZB Group was the third largest Austrian bank . The total assets of the RZB Group at the end of 2016 were around 135 billion euros. RZB was a member of the Austrian Raiffeisen Association , which, among other things, was responsible for representing the interests of all Austrian Raiffeisen cooperatives.

history

On August 16, 1927, the founding meeting of the shareholders of the Girozentrale of the Austrian Raiffeisen cooperatives took place. This gave the Raiffeisen banking group a top institution that acted as the nationwide and international representative and coordinator of the group until 2017. The foundation took place around four decades after the establishment of the first Austrian savings and loan association based on the system of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen .

The original company name was Girozentrale der Austrian cooperatives . In 1939 it was changed by the new German owners - after the annexation of Austria - to the cooperative central bank of Ostmark Aktiengesellschaft and in 1942 to the cooperative central bank of Vienna Aktiengesellschaft . From 1953 the new name was Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank Aktiengesellschaft . The short form GZB was also in use. Since 1989 the bank was called Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich Aktiengesellschaft . RZB was used as a short form .

Founded primarily as a liquidity equalization office of the Raiffeisen banking group, the institute had already expanded its business areas - such as foreign exchange and foreign currency transactions, lending , deposit acceptance and investment in securities - as well as the workforce - to 85 employees - in the first ten years .

In 1938 the bank was taken over by a provisional manager on the day following the annexation to the German Reich and subsequently nationalized. Only in 1955 did the bank return to the ownership of the pre-war shareholders.

Setting the course in the 1950s

In the 1950s, GZB began to build up and expand its international business. This step was also clearly reflected in the growth of the bank, which had almost 200 employees in 1957. At the end of the 1950s, the bank began to set up specialty companies or to participate in them. Thanks to the cooperation in the network, the institute also enabled each individual Raiffeisen bank to offer its customers a universal range of services. With the establishment of Raiffeisen Bausparkasse, Raiffeisen Versicherung, Raiffeisen Leasing and other specialist companies, the Raiffeisen banking group's product portfolio was further expanded.

Start of the Eastern European expansion in the 1980s

In addition to its position as one of the largest commercial and investment banks in Austria, RZB built up another pillar in the 1980s and founded today's Raiffeisen Bank in Budapest in 1986. The early strategic decision to gain a foothold in Central and Eastern Europe ( CEE ) was groundbreaking for the history of RZB. From 1991, after the collapse of the communist regime, RZB consistently implemented its expansion in CEE and initially built up a viable network by setting up banks, which was supplemented by acquisitions from 2000.

Like Austria, RZB regards CEE as its home market. The subsidiary bank and legal successor Raiffeisen Bank International , which was founded out of RZB and in which RZB last held around 60.7 percent - the remaining shares were in free float - operates one of the largest banking networks in CEE.

owner

RZB was almost 90 percent owned by the eight Austrian regional Raiffeisen banks . Other shareholders included:

Specialist company

Almost all of the specialist companies in the Raiffeisen banking group were also subsidiaries of RZB. These included:

  • Valida Holding AG (group of companies that is active in the business areas "Pension Fund", "Pension Fund" and "Pension Consulting")
  • Raiffeisen Bausparkasse
  • Raiffeisen Capital Management
    • Raiffeisen capital investment company
    • Raiffeisen Salzburg Invest capital investment
    • Raiffeisen Immobilien Kapitalanlage GmbH
  • Raiffeisen Datennetz Gesellschaft mbH
  • Raiffeisen evolution project development GmbH
  • Raiffeisen Factor Bank AG
  • Raiffeisen Informatik GmbH
  • Raiffeisen Investment AG (RIAG)
  • Raiffeisen-Leasing GmbH
  • Raiffeisen Versicherung (100% subsidiary of UNIQA Versicherungen AG )
  • Raiffeisen Wohnbaubank
  • RSC Raiffeisen Service Center GmbH
  • Raiffeisen Software GmbH

Raiffeisen Bank International AG

Main article: Raiffeisen Bank International

RZB operated a banking network in Central and Eastern Europe through its listed subsidiary Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI). Practically the entire region was covered by subsidiary banks, leasing companies and other financial service providers. At the end of 2016, RBI was serving around 14.1 million customers in more than 2,500 branches.

Holdings

Raiffeisen Zentralbank, Raiffeisenlandesbanken and Raiffeisen-Holding Niederösterreich-Wien held or hold numerous investments in companies in a wide variety of industries. The most famous of these are:

literature

  • Lutz Holzinger, Clemens Staudinger: Black Book Raiffeisen . Mandelbaum-Verlag, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-85476-622-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence