On Monday afternoon, the Supervisory Board of Hypo Vorarlberg met for an extraordinary meeting. It was only about one topic, namely the Landesbank’s criticized transactions with the insolvent Signa Group of the real estate juggler René Benko.
Not much of substance was made public after the crisis meeting: the board had informed them about the current developments, which were then “thoroughly discussed,” according to a release from the committee. This was followed by the addition: “The Supervisory Board understands that due to the media reporting there is uncertainty among the population and among the bank’s customers.” Therefore, they also support an audit by the State Audit Office. This will then be examined, among other things determine the extent to which the Supervisory Board has fulfilled its control function. In any case, there is still no self-criticism to be heard, on the contrary: the issues have been “continuously and carefully dealt with” In addition, risk policy and guidelines have already been adjusted “in relevant points” as a result of the deterioration in the real estate markets, and the same applies to awarding practices. Furthermore, the bank always developed its risk strategy “in coordination with the findings of the Austrian National Bank and the Financial Market Supervisory Authority”.
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