TheWiener Bankverein orBank-Verein (WBV,lit. 'Viennese Bank Union') was a major bank in theHabsburg Monarchy and theFirst Austrian Republic, founded in 1869. In 1888 it was the fourth-largest bank ofAustria-Hungary by market capitalization, behind theAustro-Hungarian Bank, theLänderbank, and theCreditanstalt.[1] It merged with the troubled Creditanstalt in 1934 to form Creditanstalt-Bankverein. Wiener Bankverein is thus one of the many predecessor entities ofUniCredit, as the latter in 2005 acquiredBank Austria which itself had merged with Creditanstalt in 1997.[2]
The Wiener Bankverein's creation was sponsored in 1869 by theAllgemeine Bodencreditanstalt, which had been established in Vienna in 1863.[3] In 1871, with assistance fromAnglo-Austrian Bank andDarmstädter Bank, it sponsored the creation of a joint-stock bank inConstantinople, theAustro-Ottomanische Bank;[4]: 24 but that venture soon faltered and was acquired by theImperial Ottoman Bank in 1874.[5] It the late 19th century, the WBV became active in financing ventures in southeastern Europe including railways in the Balkans and petroleum production inRomania.[4]: 31-33 In 1890, it founded theHungarian Industrial and Commercial Bank inBudapest, with privileged tax status granted by ad hoc legislation.[6]: 221 In 1895, it led the creation of theLandesbank für Bosnien und Herzegowina inSarajevo.[4]: 34 In 1906, it returned to Constantinople and opened a branch office there,[4]: 33 soon followed by the construction of a prominent branch building inaugurated in 1912. It opened a branch inZagreb in 1908.[4]: 35 By 1912, it had the largest network of all Austrian joint-stock banks, with 49 branches in comparison to 31 for theLänderbank and 21 for theCreditanstalt.[7]
On 25 July 1914, the prospect of impending war triggered abank run at the Wiener Bankverein's branch inConstantinople, which was subsequently closed on 1 August 1914.[8] It opened a branch inBelgrade under Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1916 duringWorld War I.[4]: 37
Following the war's end and post-war financial turmoil in the newly formedFirst Austrian Republic, theSociété Générale de Belgique (SGB) and its affiliate theBanque Belge pour l'Étranger (BBE) recapitalized Wiener Bankverein in 1920, joined in 1922 byBasler Handelsbank and in 1927 byDillon, Read & Co..
Following thebanking crisis of 1931, the Bankverein experienced financial distressed. In 1932, it transferred a significant portfolio of problem assets to a government-owned vehicle, theGesellschaft für Revision und Treuhandige Verwaltung and issued new shares to restore its capital base, but that transaction and a similar one in 1933 proved insufficient. Eventually, the Wiener Bankverein was merged on 31 December 1933 into the recapitalizedCreditanstalt,[9]: 13 which simultaneously took over the viable operations ofNiederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft.[4]: 165 The resulting merged entity adopted the nameÖsterreichische Creditanstalt - Wiener Bankverein, in short Creditanstalt-Bankverein.
As part of their restructuring of the WBV, the Société Générale de Belgique and Banque Belge pour l'Étranger created new domestic banks in the Empire's successor states, in which they initially had joint controlling ownership together with their partner theBasler Handelsbank:[10]
The AJB gained prominence in Yugoslavia during the 1930s,[4]: 191 when it was the largest bank to avoid falling under a "moratorium" on its liabilities following theEuropean banking crisis of 1931.[12]: 47 In 1940 following theGerman invasion of Belgium,Deutsche Bank bought out the Belgian stake under duress and became its dominant shareholder, with 88 percent held either directly or through Creditanstalt, also under Deutsche Bank's control sinceAnschluss in 1938;[4]: 242 businessmanFranz Neuhausen became its Chairman.[12]: 46 Deutsche Bank simultaneously took control of the Landesbank in Sarajevo.[12]: 49 Following the Germaninvasion of Yugoslavia, the AJB was divided into two separate institutions:
Both banks' assets were confiscated by the newly established Communist authorities in October 1944, and they were subsequently liquidated.[4]: 394
From its foundation in 1869, the Wiener Bankverein's head office was atHerrengasse 6-8, later extended to what was then Herrengasse 10, in the formerPalais Liechtenstein [de].[13] In 1912, the WBV moved to a new head office it had built at the corner ofSchottenring andSchottengasse, on a design by architectsErnst Gotthilf [de] andAlexander Neumann [de];[14] the Palais Liechtenstein was promptly demolished, and replaced in the 1930s by the high-rise building brandedHochhaus Herrengasse [de].[13]
The WBV building on Schottengasse later became the headquarters of the merged Creditanstalt-Bankverein from 1934, then ofBank Austria from 1997, and of Bank Austria-Creditanstalt from 2002 to 2017.[14] The building was then renovated and converted into a commercial compound brandedHaus am Schottentor [de], including anInterspar hypermarket, and inaugurated in 2021.[15]
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The Wiener Bankverein also erected a branch office building in theGalata neighborhood ofConstantinople, on a highly visible location at the northern entrance of theGolden Horn, designed by Gotthilf and Neumann and completed in 1912. In 1921, the property was acquired by the newly createdBanque Française des Pays d'Orient.[16] In the 1930s, it was used by the Turkish tobacco concern that had succeeded theOttoman Tobacco Company in 1925, and in 1944 became a branch ofZiraat Bank.[17]
The WBV branch office inPrague was designed by Neumann andJosef Zasche [de] and completed in 1908, with expressionist sculptures byFranz Metzner.[18] Around that time, the WBV had branches in Agram (laterZagreb), Aussig an der Elbe (Ústí nad Labem), Bielitz-Biala (Bielsko-Biała), Brünn (Brno), Czernowitz (Chernivtsi),Graz, Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary),Klagenfurt, Krakau (Kraków), Lemberg (Lviv), Pilsen (Plzeň), and Teplitz (Teplice) in addition to Vienna, Prague and Constantinople.
A new branch building inZagreb was designed by Gotthilf and Neumann and completed in 1923; it was renovated in the 2010s and converted intoAmadria Park Hotel.[19]
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![Former branch building in Brno, Jezuitská 1, in 2012[20]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aJezuitsk%25C3%25A1_1%2c_Brno.JPG)
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