Bank Austria AG#

Bank Austria AG, created in 1991 by a merger of Zentralsparkasse and Kommerzialbank AG (Vienna) and Oesterreichische Laenderbank AG. The first was founded by decision of the municipal council of Vienna in 1905. Regular operation commenced on January 1, 1907. Over the years, the institute has become the largest of Austria´s savings banks.

The Oesterreichische Laenderbank AG was founded in 1880 as a subsidiary of a financial institution domiciled in Paris, France. Only 2 years later the bank became independent of its Paris head office and was transformed into an Austrian enterprise.

Bank Austria AG has branch offices in all major European financial centres, even before it took over the Creditanstalt-Bankverein AG it featured among Europe´s 50 largest financial institutions and among the 130 largest financial institutions in the world. The bank had around 300 branch offices all over Austria employing 8,700 staff in 1996. The balance sheet total was ATS 742.35 thousand million. in 1996. In 1997 Bank Austria AG took over the majority of shares (51 %) of the Creditanstalt-Bankverein AG from the Republic of Austria and was sole proprietor until 1998. Since the subsequent restructuring the Bank Austria Group has consisted of Bank Austria AG and its wholly-owned subsidiaries Creditanstalt AG (CA) and the newly established Bank Austria Creditanstalt International AG, which is mainly responsible for the group's foreign business and is active in 33 countries with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe; it also carries out business on the financial centres of the European Union, Switzerland, the USA, South America and Asia.

The Bank Austria AG is one of the 35 largest in Europe; in 1999 the group had approx. 500 branches in Austria with a staff of 14,000, of these 200 were Creditanstalt branches with 6,000 employees. Balance sheet total for 1998: ATS 1,646.5 bn.

Due to its structure, the know-how of Bank Austria AG is not limited to the financial services industry. It has a large number of subsidiaries and interests in industrial and commercial firms as well as in tourism. G. Randa has been managing director of Bank Austria AG since 1995.