BUDAPEST/VIENNA, Oct 21 (Reuters) – While euro zone leaders
plan to use taxpayers’ money to shore up their banks, Hungary’s
prime minister is in a “fight” against the nation’s lenders and
is piling pressure on them as he tries to jump-start consumer
spending.

And, for the banks at least, it may be about to get worse.

Viktor Orban has already slapped them with an extraordinary
tariff to offset personal income tax cuts and launched a
campaign to cut a huge level of foreign currency debt that is
expected to cause big losses for financial institutions.

VIENNA, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Austria’s 2012 budget deficit is
set to narrow more than expected to 3.2 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) despite a sharp economic slowdown,
undergirding the country’s AAA debt rating, Finance Minister
Maria Fekter said.

Higher revenue from sales, income and corporate taxes is set
to counter increased spending on key areas such as education,
research and energy conservation as well as higher debt
servicing costs, she told parliament on Wednesday.

VIENNA, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Oesterreichische Volksbanken AG , the Austrian bank that failed this year’s European
stress test, will post a 2011 loss and reorganise to shore up
its balance sheet, the country’s fourth-biggest lender said on
Thursday.

Vienna-based Volksbanken announced after a supervisory
board meeting that it aims to form a mutual liability
association with its main regional bank shareholders, as
financial sources had earlier told Reuters.

VIENNA, Oct 12 (Reuters) – UniCredit unit Bank
Austria sees limited parallels with rival Erste Group Bank
, which warned on profit this week after taking big
writedowns in Hungary and Romania, its chief financial officer
said.

Bank Austria, emerging Europe’s leading lender, continues to
look at goodwill on its balance sheet, especially for operations
in places like Ukraine and Kazakhstan, CFO Francesco Giordano
told Reuters on Wednesday on the sidelines on a financial
conference.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Erste Group Bank AG (ERST.VI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), emerging Europe’s second-biggest lender, said it would lose up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) this year and not pay a dividend after taking hits on foreign-currency loans in Hungary and euro zone sovereign debt.

It unveiled big goodwill writedowns in key markets Hungary and Romania and took another blow from changing the way it values off-balance-sheet credit default swaps.

VIENNA, Oct 10 (Reuters) – East European lender Erste Group
Bank warned on Monday it would make a net loss this
year of up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) and not pay a
dividend after taking hits on its foreign currency loans in
Hungary and euro zone sovereign debt.

The Austrian bank’s shares were down more than 14 percent at
17.75 euros by 0850 GMT, when the Stoxx 600 Europe banking
sector index was down less than 0.7 percent.

VIENNA, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Austrian banks are set to keep
state capital they secured during the financial crisis longer
than first planned to ensure they have the strength to withstand
shocks spawned by Europe’s debt crisis, financial and
supervisory sources said.

No new crisis cases along the lines of Belgian-French lender
Dexia have emerged in Austria, where officials are
keeping a close eye on nationalised bank Hypo Alpe Adria
and EU stress test flunker Oesterreichische
Volksbanken AG (OTVVp.VI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

VIENNA (Reuters) – The global sovereign debt crisis is undermining banking supervision by torpedoing a basic tenet — that government debt in a banks’ home currency represents zero risk when it comes to calculating capital buffers, top experts warned on Monday.

If governments cannot convince markets that public debt is solid, banks will pay the price in higher costs of capital and perhaps even be forced to make stock placements at fire-sale prices, banking officials told a panel discussion on the financial crisis and bank supervision, organized by bodies including the Austrian National Bank.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Austria’s opposition Greens want sweeping changes to international finance rules and domestic policy in return for giving their crucial support to the creation of the euro zone’s permanent bailout fund in 2013, a leading party member said.

The governing coalition of Social Democrats and conservatives won parliamentary approval on Friday for beefing up the region’s current rescue fund — the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) — with just a simple majority.

ISTANBUL/VIENNA Sept 22 (Reuters) – Looted camps and poor
logistics are going to make returning to Libya slow and arduous,
oil and gas group OMV said on Thursday, predicting it
could take up to 18 months for production to normalise.

OMV, which got about a tenth of its oil from Libya last
year, will send a team to the North African country in the next
few days to inspect its facilities and meet the new head of the
state National Oil Corp, CEO Gerhard Roiss said.