Austria

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BEST BANK: Raiffeisen Banking Group (RZB) BEST DEBT HOUSE: Deutsche Bank BEST EQUITY HOUSE: Goldman Sachs BEST M&A HOUSE: Merrill Lynch

The Raiffeisen Banking Group includes Austria’s local and regional Raiffeisen banks as well as RZB, the central banking institution owned by the Raiffeisen banks, which also operates one of the largest banking networks in central Europe.

While the Raiffeisen banks have maintained their dominant share of the retail market, RZB has over the past five years managed to double its market share of the wholesale market to 25% – as measured by the percentage of Austria’s top 1,000 companies for which it is the principal bank.

The group’s M&A advisory business, Raiffeisen Investment, performed particularly well last year.