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Peer Review - Major Austrian Banks - Fitch Report
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Fitch: Austrian Banks' Cost Focus to Offset CEE, Levy Pressures
Austrian banks' efforts to contain costs should help offset both revenue pressure in many of their central and eastern Europe (CEE) subsidiaries and taxes imposed on the financial sector, Fitch Ratings says. However, the outlook is still fragile, with asset quality yet to stabilise and subdued credit growth in both domestic and core CEE markets.
Austrian banks have been streamlining branch networks and disposing of underperforming non-core subsidiaries since 2010. Raiffeisen Bank International's (RBI) announcement of a EUR400m-450m three-year cost savings plan on 24 September highlights that banks may make further efforts to support profitability as pressure persists for core revenues and costs.
Sluggish or negative loan growth, low interest rates and the weak economy have weighed on revenues at the largest Austrian banks. Operations in the home market and some CEE countries, notably Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia, remain profitable. But continued asset quality deterioration in Romania, Hungary and to a lesser extent Croatia means these subsidiaries continue to be loss-making or underperforming. We expect Hungary and Croatia to remain a drag on profitability in H213, while profitability in Romania should gradually improve.
Bank levies and transaction taxes in Austria, Slovakia and, notably, Hungary may potentially counteract the cost efficiency gains made by the Austrian banks since the global financial crisis. In H113, bank levies and financial transaction taxes accounted for 5%-9% of operating expenses at the four largest rated institutions. We expect some of the extraordinary levies, designed to be temporary measures, to become permanent or at least remain in place for the foreseeable future. This would burden the profitability of Austrian banks active in the countries where the levies apply.
The large banks remain committed to their core CEE markets, despite some loan deleveraging due to sluggish credit demand but also as part of efforts to increase local funding. We see the risk and earnings diversification from overseas operations as a positive rating factor. However, RBI and Bank Austria increasingly rely on the well-performing Russian market for a big chunk of their revenue, which could ultimately be ratings-negative. We believe the balance will be naturally redressed when operating conditions in other CEE countries improve, particularly in Hungary and to a lesser extent Romania.
