| Type | joint stock company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Finance and Insurance |
| Founded | 1927 |
| Headquarters | Vienna, Austria |
| Products | Commercial banking, investment banking, private banking, asset management |
| Net income | €1,2 billion (As of 2011[update]) |
| Employees | ca. 55,400 |
| Website | www.rzb.at |
Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG is the central institution of the Raiffeisen Banking Group Austria (RBG) and also functions as the group centre for the entire RZB Group, of which the listed company [[Raiffeisen Bank International AG]] (RBI) with its banking network in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is the largest member.
The RZB Group is the third largest Austrian bank. As of end-2010, the balance-sheet total of the RZB Group amounted to 136.5 billion euros. RZB has several specialised subsidiaries.
Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG is a member of Austrian Raiffeisen Association, which amongst other things functions as the interest representation association for all Austrian Raiffeisen cooperatives.
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The incorporation meeting of the shareholders of the giro centre of the Austrian Raiffeisen cooperatives was held on 16 August 1927. With this, a central institution was established for the Raiffeisen Banking Group, and since then this institution has functioned as the national and international representative and coordinator for the Group. The founding took place roughly four decades after the establishment of the first Austrian savings and loan cooperative to use the system devised by Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. The original company name was Girozentrale der österreichischen Genossenschaften. In 1939, after the German occupation of Austria, the new German owners changed the name to Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank der Ostmark Aktiengesellschaft, and then in 1942 to Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank Wien Aktiengesellschaft. From 1953, the new name was Genossenschaftliche Zentralbank Aktiengesellschaft, with the abbreviation GZB also being used for the company. Since 1989, the bank has been named Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich Aktiengesellschaft, abbreviated as RZB. Founded primarily as a liquidity equalisation office for the Raiffeisen Banking Group, the company already in its first ten years of operation significantly expanded its business activities to include fields such as foreign exchange and currency transactions, lending, acceptance of deposits and investment in securities. Along with this, the bank’s staff also increased significantly, rising to 85 employees at the end of its first decade of existence. In 1938, one day after the German occupation of Austria, it was taken over by a provisional administrator and subsequently nationalised. The bank was not returned to its pre-war owners until 1955.
In the 1950s, GZB began to expand and transform its foreign operations. This was also clearly reflected in the bank’s growth, with the number of staff rising to almost 200 by 1957. At the end of the 1950s, the bank began to found specialised companies or to invest in them. Working with the co-operatives also allowed the institution to offer each and every Raiffeisen bank and its customers a universal range of financial services. The product portfolio of the Raiffeisen Banking Group was further expanded with the founding of Raiffeisen Building Society, Raiffeisen Insurance, Raiffeisen Leasing and other specialised companies.
Along with its position as one of the largest commercial and investment banks in Austria, RZB started developing another main area of business already in the 1980s, founding the present-day Raiffeisen Bank in Budapest in 1986. This very early strategic decision to expand into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) proved to be one of the most important decisions in RZB’s history. Starting from 1989, with the collapse of the communist regimes, RZB focused intensely on CEE, initially founding numerous banks to build up a viable network, which was then complemented with acquisitions starting from 2000. Along with Austria, RZB considers CEE to be its home market. The subsidiary bank Raiffeisen Bank International was formed merging Raiffeisen International Bankholding AG and the corporate banking business and related participations from RZB. RZB currently holds a stake of approximately 78.5% (with the rest of the shares in free float) and operates one of the largest banking networks in CEE.
RZB is 87.70% owned by R-Landesbanken-Beteiligung GmbH, which in turn is owned by the nine Austrian Raiffeisen regional banks (eight regional centres and Zveza Bank). Other RZB owners include:
Almost all of the specialised companies of the Raiffeisen Banking Group are also subsidiaries of RZB. These include:
Main article: Raiffeisen Bank International Via its listed subsidiary Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), RZB operates a banking network in Central and Eastern Europe. 17 markets are covered with subsidiary banks, leasing companies and representative offices. As of end-2010, RBI served more than 14 million customers via roughly 3,000 branch offices. At the end of February 2010, RZB CEO Walter Rothensteiner announced that a possible merger of RZB with Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG (RI) was being considered.[2] This move would open up broader access to the capital, money and bond markets. As all of these changes would take place within the group, it would have no impact on the equity capital ratios. The newly-founded Raiffeisen Bank International AG would contain RI and those parts of RZB that do not involve business with the Raiffeisen sector. Business related to RZB's function as the central institution of the Raiffeisen Banking Group and those participations relevant for this sector were to remain at RZB. On 19 April 2010, the executive boards of the two institutions resolved to present a proposal on this merger to the shareholders for approval. At the general shareholders meeting on 7 July 2010, the shareholders of RZB voted to spin off the bank's commercial customer business and the related participations from RZB and to merge these with RI. The next day, the shareholders of RI approved this merger at a general shareholders meeting. The newly founded institution, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, began its activities on 11 October 2010.
Raiffeisen Zentralbank, the Raiffeisen regional banks and Raiffeisen-Holding Niederösterreich-Wien have numerous investments in companies in various fields of business: The most well known of these are:
Additional companies in which RZB holds a stake include:
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