Austrian Banks’ Squeezed by Capital Pressure, Fitch Ratings Says
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Austrian banks’ credit ratings may come under pressure if their plans to strengthen capital are delayed or earnings are eroded by “accelerated deleveraging,” Fitch Ratings said.
Raiffeisen Bank International AG, eastern Europe’s third-largest lender, will be “challenged” to fill a 2.1 billion-euro ($2.8 billion) capital gap determined by the European Banking Authority on its own, Fitch said in a statement today. Oesterreichische Volksbanken AG, the lender that failed the EBA’s stress test twice and has a 1.05 billion-euro shortfall, may have to seek state aid, Fitch said.