Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG, RZB#

Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG (RZB), head institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank Group ( Raiffeisenkassen) in Vienna. It was established in 1927 under the title Girozentrale der oesterreichischen Genossenschaften (giro bank of the Austrian co-operatives, after 1945 Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank GZB, current name since 1989) and is licensed to deal with all forms of credit and foreign exchange transactions. The Austrian Raiffeisen Bank Group is organised in three levels, it has 672 local Raiffeisenkassen with 1,698 branches, eight regional institutions for the provinces and the Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG at the top (as of January 1, 1998). The RZB has a large number of subsidiaries and associated companies and is not listed on the stock exchange (shareholders are the central institutions for the provinces, the Raiffeisenlandesbanken). Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 the RZB has been expanding into the former Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, it has subsidiaries in Budapest, Bratislava, Bucarest, Prague, Warsaw, Sofia, Zagreb, Moscow and Kiev as well as a number of specialized companies in Central and Eastern Europe. The RZB is member of the UNICO group of banks, the umbrella organization of all cooperative banks in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. The group has more than 40,000 branches and subsidiaries worlwide. In 1997 total assets of the RZB Group amounted to ATS 304.22 billion, the average number of employees was 3,074, two-thirds of which in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1997 RZB's total assets amounted to ATS 266.53 billion, chairman of the board is Walter Rothensteiner.