Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft

The Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft was formed in 1853 on the model of the Disconto-Gesellschaft established two years earlier in Berlin, and mainly served merchants and industrialists in Vienna and its surrounding region of Lower Austria. In 1863, it sponsored the creation of the Böhmische Escompte-Bank in Prague, of which it eventually took full ownership in 1901. In 1869, it sponsored the creation of the Hungarian Discount and Exchange Bank in Pest, developed from the former private banking house of C. J. Malvieux, which became one of the largest universal banks in Hungary. In a separate venture in 1895, the Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft was a partner in the creation of the Hazai Bank by the First National Savings Bank of Pest. By 1910, it was one of the seven largest banks in Vienna.

Following World War I, in 1919 the Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft had to sell the Böhmische Escompte-Bank to Prague-based Živnostenská banka under the newly established Czechoslovak government's policy of reducing foreign control of its banking system, or nostrification. In 1927, it took a 6 percent ownership stake in Bank Handlowy in Warsaw.

The Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft was unable to survive the European banking crisis of 1931. In 1932, similarly as the Wiener Bankverein, it transferred a portfolio of problem assets to a government-owned vehicle, the Gesellschaft für Revision und Treuhandige Verwaltung and issued new shares to restore its capital base, but that transaction proved insufficient. In 1933, as part of the systemwide restructuring initiated by chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank took over most of the bank's share capital through another recapitalization, which ultimately involved the transfer to the recapitalized Creditanstalt of its entire banking business on 31 December 1933. The remaining entity was renamed Industriekredit AG and remained under the control of the National Bank. It was eventually liquidated.