
Raiffeisen Bankengruppe

Raiffeisen Bankengruppe is the larger of two groups of cooperative banks in Austria (another one was Austrian Volksbanks).
Structure.
The c. 490 local cooperatives ("Raiffeisenbanken") are organized in nine "Raiffeisen-landesbanken", one for each federal state, with only Vienna and Lower Austria sharing one. Only Carinthia has two "Raiffeisenlandesbanken", with the "Zveza Bank" serving the Slovene minority. Owned by their respective member banks, most "Raiffeisenlandesbanken" are cooperatives themselves (regGenmbH), with some having recently switched to the legal status of Aktiengesellschaft. Together, they own their national umbrella institute, the Raiffeisen Bank International, via a shareholders' agreement.