| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Finance and Insurance |
| Founded | 1922 |
| Headquarters | Vienna, Austria |
| Key people | Byron Haynes, (CEO) |
| Products | Commercial banking, Investment banking, Private banking, Asset management |
| Operating income | € 887.9 million (2009) |
| Total assets | € 42,8 bn (2Q 2010) |
| Total equity | € 2.025 bn (2Q 2010) |
| Employees | 4.000 (2010) |
| Website | www.bawagpsk.com |
BAWAG P.S.K. Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft und Österreichische Postsparkasse Aktiengesellschaft (BAWAG P.S.K.) is the fourth largest bank in Austria. It was formed on October 1, 2005, by the merger of the separate P.S.K. and BAWAG banking firms.
BAWAG, was founded in 1922 by former Austrian Chancellor, Karl Renner, to extend favourable terms of credit to ordinary people, as the 'Austrian Worker's Bank'. The bank was forced to close in 1934, but resumed its operations post World War II in 1947. In 1963, it took the name of Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft AG, BAWAG, or, in English, 'Bank for Labour and Business Corporation'. Until 2006, the bank's majority shareholder was the ÖGB, the Austrian Trade Union Federation. In December 2006, Cerberus Capital Management acquired BAWAG P.S.K. for reported €3.2 billion.
By 2004, the bank had assets of 56.2 billion euros, and a 170 million-euro annual profit.
In October 2005, BAWAG approved a loan of 425 million euros to Phillip R. Bennett, then CEO of the commodities broker, Refco, collateralized against Bennett's own holdings in the firm. However, the reason he required the money was that he had lent an undisclosed 430 million dollars of the broker's money to himself in an attempt to cover up the company's bad debts. The very day after BAWAG made Bennett the loan, the irregularities were made public, triggering a number of regulatory investigations. Refco has since declared chapter 11 bankruptcy, making BAWAG's collateral essentially worthless. The Austrian National Bank and Financial Market Authority are now investigating.
In April 2006, creditors of Refco sued BAWAG for over $1.3 billion, alleging that the bank had colluded to hide Bennett's fraudulent transactions back to at least 2000, and that the bank owned far more of Refco than it had ever revealed in regulatory filings.[1]
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