Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen

Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818-1888) set himself the task of ameliorating the enormous economic suffering among large sections of the German population. In 1862, he created a loan bank association and thus laid the foundation for the current global organisation of the Raiffeisen co-operatives.

Raiffeisen banks in Austria

Just ten years after the foundation of the Raiffeisenkasse Mühldorf (Lower Austria) in 1886, a system of 600 Raiffeisen savings and loan banks was already operating in Austria.

Following Raiffeisen’s example, the individual co-operatives founded regionally active, central provincial banks (from 1894).

At federal level, a joint association was founded in Vienna in 1898, which now bears the name Austrian Raiffeisen Association ("Österreichischer Raiffeisenverband").

The Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG was founded in 1927.