History

The present Österreichische Volksbanken-AG was established in 1922 as the central institution of the Austrian Volksbanks in order to support them in fulfilling their service mandate. Its primary role was to offset fluctuations in liquidity among the Volksbanks, which had been established as early as 1850 as commercial cooperative credit associations.

In 1930 the Austrian Union of Credit Co-operatives was founded under the name Österreichische Genossenschaftsverband and structured in accordance with the Schulze-Delitzsch system.

In 1974, following a resolution of the general assembly held in June of the same year, the legal form of Zentralkasse der Volksbanken Österreichs reg.Gen.m.b.H was converted from a co-operative to a co-operative public limited company. It contains the cooperative service mandate in its Articles of Association.

In 1991, when the new Articles of Association were adopted, Österreichische Volksbanken-AG was converted from a regular central institution to a central institution with commercial banking functions. In the same year, the go-ahead was given for setting up the banking network in Central and Eastern Europe which has since proved so successful: this made it possible to support and assist Austrian medium-sized businesses in expanding within the enlarged Europe. In 1991, Österreichische Volksbanken-AG was the first foreign bank to acquire a full banking licence in the former Czechoslovakia, which led to the founding of Ludova banka a.s. in Bratislava on 30 August 1991. Over the following years, expansion continued into Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro and Ukraine.

In 1996 the co-operation between Österreichischer Genossenschaftsverband and Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank started and culminated in July of the same year in the acquisition of a 25 % stake by Germany’s DZ Bank AG in Österreichische Volksbanken-AG.

In order to streamline banking activities in CEE and deploy capital more effectively, VB-International GmbH was founded in 1997, converted into a joint stock company in 1999 and renamed Volksbank International AG (VBI AG) in 2000. Österreichische Volksbanken-AG’s holdings in its foreign subsidiaries are being gradually transferred to VBI AG.

Volksbank Wien AG, within which Österreichische Volksbanken-AG placed its branch operations, was founded in 2001. This strengthened Volksbank’s position in the Vienna metropolitan area.

In 2002, the existing co-operation between the Volksbanks/Österreichische Volksbanken-AG and ERGO Insurance Group AG (VICTORIA-Versicherung) was intensified through an increase in the latter’s holding in Österreichische Volksbanken-AG to 10 %.

By 2004 Österreichische Volksbanken-AG Group already had branches in eleven central and eastern European countries and was present in all major global financial centres thanks to its relations with a large number of correspondent banks. In December, Banque Fédérale des Banques Populaires (BFBP), the French group of credit co-operatives, and Germany’s DZ Bank AG and WGZ-Bank each declared their intention of acquiring a 24.5 % share in Volksbank International AG. This was realised in 2005.

In 2005, Österreichische Volksbanken-AG, the leading institution among the independent regional Volksbanks, took over Investkredit Group in order to expand its market share in the corporate, real estate and infrastructure financing sectors.

By disposing of Kommunalkredit Austria AG to the Republic of Austria on 3 November 2008, Österreichische Volksbanken-AG departed from the public finance segment in 2008. The strategic decision to withdraw from public finance had become inevitable due to the developments on the markets.

In 2009, Gerald Wenzel took over the management of the VBAG Group as the new Chief Executive Officer. He takes up his role in the most difficult fiscal year for VBAG and starts to restructure the Group.

In 2011, due to the new restructuring strategy of VBAG Europolis was sold. The signing for the sell of Volksbank International AG (except VB Romania S.A.) to the russian Sberbank took place in september.

On February 15th 2012 the sale of Volksbank International to Sberbank was concluded.

On February 27th the Republic of Austria and the Volksbanks have reached an agreement on a sustainable solution to stabilise VBAG. The capital of VBAG will be reduced by up to 70% effective 31 December 2011. At the same time, the Republic of Austria and the Volksbanks will perform a capital increase of €480 million in total. The objective and purpose of the agreed measures is the reorganisation and transformation VBAG into a sustainable cooperative bank in accordance with section 30a of the Austrian Banking Act (BWG).