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Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818-1888), a doctor and philantropist, set himself the goal to diminish the great economical need of the people in his time. So in 1862 Mr. Raiffeisen established a so called loan association and thus founded the world wide organisation of Raiffeisen cooperatives.
Raiffeisenbanken in Austria
| 1886 |
the first Raiffeisenkasse was established in Mühldorf (Lower Austria) and 10 years later there were already 600 savings and loan cooperatives acting under the Raiffeisen system. |
| 1894 |
Following the start up of the first level (Raiffeisenbanken) the first Raiffeisen Regional Central Bank was founded in 1894 in Innsbruck, the today‘s Raiffeisen-Landesbank Tirol AG. |
| 1898 |
a joint association was built in Vienna, this is the today‘s Österreichischer Raiffeisenverband |
| 1927 |
Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG, the flag ship of Raiffeisen Group Austria, was founded |
Structure
The Raiffeisen Banking Group Austria is built on a three level model.
Around 570 affiliated Raiffeisenbanks, acting locally with more than 1.600 branches, build the first level. They all are organized as cooperative companies.
The second level is built by the 8 Raiffeisen Landesbanken, each owned by its relative Raiffeisenbanks in its county.
Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB) is the flag ship with specific services and builds the third level.
RZB is one of the three leading Commercial and Investment Banks in Austria and has the position of a top player in Central and Eastern Europe Countries.
The owners of RZB are the 8 Raiffeisen Landesbanken.
The three levels work by principle of subsidiarity:
Every level focuses on another target group
The clients of the local Raiffeisenbanken are private individuals, freelancers and small and medium sized companies.
The Raiffeisen Landesbanken address also to small and medium sized companies as well as major corporates
RZB is servicing national and international major corporates and multinational entities.