Awards for Excellence 2008: Austria

Best bank: Erste Bank  Best investment bank: Goldman Sachs

In a difficult year for Austria’s largest banks, Erste Bank stands out for having made notable progress in its domestic corporate banking units where net profits in the first quarter of 2008 were up as much as 69.5% for SMEs on the same period the year before and net profits from large corporate clients rose 50.8%, driven by improved commission income from the restructured business banking division.

Although overall results were hurt by the group’s exposure to a deteriorating credit market, member savings banks still managed to report an adjusted net income growth of 14.1%,