The downward spiral of René Benko’s ailing Signa construction is now causing sensational collateral damage. A Swiss banking institution is now sliding into bankruptcy due to a loan to the Signa Group. Incidentally, a former Signa advisory board member also sits on the board of directors of this bank…
Zurich-based IHAG Privatbank granted Benko a €30 million loan in early 2023 – a significant risk for the financial institution, which had equity of €132 million at the end of 2022. Converted into francs, the Signa loan amounted to a whopping 21.4 percent of equity. The Swiss financial market regulator Finma calls this a “cluster risk”.
Loan only partially covered by shares
Why would people in Zurich dare to make such a deal? The financial turbulence of the Signa Group was already apparent at that time; the debts were high. A spokesman for IHAG Bank only confirmed the figure of 30 million to the Swiss media in May 2024, but they did not want to say more about it.
Part of the loan, according to the Swiss Tagesanzeiger, namely around twelve million euros, was covered by shares in listed companies. IHAG was able to sell these and thus at least partially cover the claim of 30 million euros. But the remaining loss was too great and on Friday, shortly before the stock exchange closed, the Zurich institute announced that it was transferring the customer activities to Vontobel – de facto the end for IHAG after 75 years.
Notable staff on the board of directors
However, if you look more closely, you will notice a very explosive personality. Because the board of directors of IHAG is none other than Susanne Riess-Hahn, former Vice Chancellor of the FPÖ in the cabinet of Wolfgang Schüssel. Riess-Hahn held advisory positions at Signa for many years and in September 2023 praised René Benko as a “cautious and risk-aware financial manager”. At this point, it is now clear that the “Signa child” had already fallen into the pit…
This does not help the Swiss private bank any more; a social plan has been drawn up for the 76 employees of IHAG. A third will lose their jobs, the rest will be covered by early retirement or will transfer to Vontobel, the bank says. The promise is that the transition will be smooth for customers.
Discretion, even in times of crisis
And even in times of crisis, Swiss financial institutions exercise discretion: officially, it is said that the company went bankrupt due to “the lack of critical size of the private bank and a lack of inorganic growth opportunities.” Only in last year’s annual report it says: “The loss is largely due to the creation of a value adjustment for a threatened claim worth 16.98 million francs.”
A spokesman later confirmed that this value adjustment was “a structured loan to a real estate group”, but the Signa itself was kept as secret as possible. Particularly bitter: without the bankrupt Signa loan, IHAG Bank would have even improved last year’s results.
Source: Krone

I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.