The taming of Creditanstalt

Gerhard Randa, Austria's undisputed number one banker, flanked by four senior colleagues, gives a rare audience to the Viennese press corps. Two of the sharpest ­ Stefan Janny of the weekly profil, and Margarete Freisinger of the out-of-town Salzburger Nachrichten ­ sit dead centre, cigarettes and other weapons at the ready.

Behind Randa is a tapestry depicting jousting knights on horseback in the main square of medieval Vienna. In the Bank Austria building today, in that same square, Randa is facing his least favourite opponents.

It's exactly a year since Randa, chairman of savings bank Bank Austria shocked the little world of Austrian finance by announcing a bid for patrician but state-controlled Creditanstalt. Within a month Randa had it in his grasp. But it took another 11 months, until December 16 1997, to present the world with a structure for the merged banking group. And even then...