Greens Direct Request – Benko and Banks: “Toxic Business Relationship?”

Real estate broker Rene Benko is the focus of bank accountants. As Germany’s Handelsblatt first reported, the European Central Bank (ECB) wants to scrutinize European banks’ commitments to Signa Holding.

At the request of the “Krone”, the ECB declined to comment further on this “state of affairs”. The central question, of course, is how high are the credit risks for the banks, ie whether loans are covered and with what, as the “Krone” and “Zackzack” discovered.

Further investigation has now shown that Raiffeisen could also have been affected. Signa’s credit risk with the Austrian group is said to be around one billion. This is reported by bank insiders and you will hear it from treasury circles. Raiffeisen refers to banking secrecy upon request.

And a parliamentary question about this was submitted on Friday. From the Green Nina Tomaselli. Title: “Raiffeisenbank and Benko – Do RBI and Signa Have a Toxic Business Relationship?”

Stubborn Greens
Tomaselli and her colleagues want to know from Finance Minister Magnus Brunner, among others, whether the Raiffeisenbanks run an increased risk by doing business with Signa; which risk provisions Raiffeisen has made; how high the open risk positions of the Raiffeisenbanks are due to real estate loans at Signa; how the outstanding exposures are distributed among the various sub-organisations of the Raiffeisenbanks; whether there are contacts with the Ministry of Signa. The “Krone” also asked Signa and their lawyer Peter Zöchbauer these questions. There was no answer.

The same goes for a previous story on this topic. In an inquiry to Brunner, the stubborn Tomaselli wanted to know whether Vienna as a financial center was in danger as a result of the ECB audits or whether the minister had entrusted the Austrian financial market authority (FMA) with an audit.

The minister has eight weeks to respond to the requests. Maybe we can get more details from him.