The Vorarlberger Hypo Landesbank classifies Signa loans worth 131 million euros as defaulted. This emerges from documents supplied by the Financial Market Authority (FMA) to the Cofag investigative committee, as “Vorarlberger Nachrichten”, ORF and “Standard” reported.
The supervisory authorities are said to have criticized Hypo Vorarlberg’s “loose lending” in the Signa matter several times in recent years. The FMA is said to have contacted Hypo Vorarlberg at the end of November 2023 – one day after Signa Holding filed for insolvency – to find out how badly the Landesbank was affected by possible loan defaults in the Signa Group. In a reply letter at the beginning of December, the bank is said to have made it clear that it classifies at least 131.2 million euros in Signa loans as “defaulted”.
Loans that were granted for the Lamarr luxury department store project on Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna and the Chalet N in Lech are affected. In addition, there is a blank loan of around 47 million euros to the Benko Family Private Foundation, which was apparently granted without security in the form of liens.
Supervision warned as early as 2022
The Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) is said to have carried out an on-site inspection at the bank in mid-2022 and warned of financial difficulties at Signa’s real estate holding. Among other things, the supervisory authorities are said to have criticized the fact that the risk from real estate financing was not adequately addressed.
Compared to other banks, Hypo Vorarlberg’s commitment to Signa is relatively large, but the bank is unlikely to be at risk. The majority owner of Hypo Vorarlberg is the state of Vorarlberg with almost 77 percent. There is no statement from the bank with reference to banking secrecy.
As reported, Upper Austrian banks are also involved in Signa, especially in the Lamarr project. However, they are all likely to be relatively well secured, although the value of collateral naturally depends on market prices.
RLB’s liability is in the mid double-digit million range, and it has registered 95 million euros as a lien. At Oberbank it is 48 million euros, at Hypo Oberösterreich it is a low double-digit million amount, and at Raiffeisenbank Wels it is eleven million euros.
