Raiffeisen Zentralbank
The ability of Raiffeisen Zentralbank (RZB) to stay a step ahead of its competitors in the highly competitive domestic market, both in terms of profitability and market share, has earned it the award. The bank’s creation of a new equity house last year was a crucial factor in the judges’ decision.
Despite the sluggish European economy, the bank increased pre-tax profit by 5% and achieved an ROE of 12.5%, well above the average for Austrian banks.
RZB, which is the country’s second-largest bank with E114bn in assets, moderately increased its share of the market for savings deposits and lending to 28.2% and 22.1%, respectively. Thus, the bank remains the clear leader in retail banking and in lending to small- and medium-sized companies. It also has preferred business relations with 25% of Austria’s largest companies.
Walter Rothensteiner, chairman of the RZB managing board, said: “I believe that there are three main reasons for our award. As the central institution of the Raiffeisen Banking Group, the group with the strongest presence in the country and the leader in internet banking, RZB contributes substantially to the success of this group.
Second, we established Raiffeisen Centrobank as our equity house and underlined our leading position in this business. And third, we developed specific and sophisticated services for our own clients, the top 1000 corporate customers in Austria, and accompany them not only to central and eastern Europe, but wherever they need financial solutions.”
