SINGAPORE, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Austria's central bank and
its financial market regulator have put Oesterreichische
Volksbanken
Without citing sources, Austrian daily Die Presse said on its website www.diepresse.com that authorities viewed the country's fourth-largest bank as systemically relevant.
On Monday, Austria nationalised Hypo Group Alpe Adria to avoid a collapse that could have undermined trust in eastern European banks. The rescue required interventions by the presidents of the European Central Bank and the Bundesbank.
The newspaper also cited a letter by the agency that manages Austria's bank capital injections to Finance Minister Josef Proell as saying that the loss-making bank had shown "worrying developments".
In the letter, the agency recommends that Volksbanken finds a strategic partner "who could at the same time act as a financial investor".
Volksbanken suffered a third-quarter pre-tax loss of 468 million euros ($686 million) and said the fourth quarter would also be hit by write-downs and bad debt provisions. [ID:nL6433722]
The group is seeking 400 million euros in capital next year
from its shareholders, which include Austrian rural cooperative
banks as well as Germany's DZ Bank