Banking in Austria is going through a revolution. The country’s traditional branch-focused business model is facing challenges from a digitalisation of banking services, and the need to cut costs is ever more evident as profitability comes under pressure and banks’ capital bases remain lower than the average across the EU's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).
The global financial crisis in 2008 posed significant problems for Austria’s banks. Some institutions required financial assistance from the state while others fell short of regulations introduced to avert another crisis, but domestic regulator the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) now sees the banks on a path to recovery.
