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Private company

Wiener Bankverein

Former bank in Austria

The Wiener Bankverein or Bank-Verein (WBV, lit. 'Viennese Bank Union') was a major bank in the Habsburg Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic, founded in 1869. In 1888 it was the fourth-largest bank of Austria-Hungary by market capitalization, behind the Austro-Hungarian Bank, the Länderbank, and the Creditanstalt. It merged with the troubled Creditanstalt in 1934 to form Creditanstalt-Bankverein.2 It is headquartered in Vienna.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1869Founded1
  • Industryfinancial service activities, except insurance and pension funding1
  • HeadquartersVienna1

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Wien 01 Haus am Schottentor a
Photo: Gugerell, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons4

The Wiener Bankverein or Bank-Verein (WBV, lit. 'Viennese Bank Union') was a major bank in the Habsburg Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic, founded in 1869. In 1888 it was the fourth-largest bank of Austria-Hungary by market capitalization, behind the Austro-Hungarian Bank, the Länderbank, and the Creditanstalt. It merged with the troubled Creditanstalt in 1934 to form Creditanstalt-Bankverein. Wiener Bankverein is thus one of the many predecessor entities of UniCredit, as the latter in 2005 acquired Bank Austria which itself had merged with Creditanstalt in 1997.2

Corporate structure

Wiener Bankverein sits at the top of its group. 2 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Wiener Bankverein Vienna
    • Kabel- und Drahtwerke Subsidiary · Austria

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

Products and brands

The Wiener Bankverein also erected a branch office building in the Galata neighborhood of Constantinople, on a highly visible location at the northern entrance of the Golden Horn, designed by Gotthilf and Neumann and completed in 1912. In 1921, the property was acquired by the newly created Banque Française des Pays d'Orient. In the 1930s, it was used by the Turkish tobacco concern that had succeeded the Ottoman Tobacco Company in 1925, and in 1944 became a branch of Ziraat Bank.

The WBV branch office in Prague was designed by Neumann and Josef Zasche and completed in 1908, with expressionist sculptures by Franz Metzner. Around that time, the WBV had branches in Agram (later Zagreb), Aussig an der Elbe (Ústí nad Labem), Bielitz-Biala (Bielsko-Biała), Brünn (Brno), Czernowitz (Chernivtsi), Graz, Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary), Klagenfurt, Krakau (Kraków), Lemberg (Lviv), Pilsen (Plzeň), and Teplitz (Teplice) in addition to Vienna, Prague and Constantinople.

A new branch building in Zagreb was designed by Gotthilf and Neumann and completed in 1923; it was renovated in the 2010s and converted into Amadria Park Hotel.

From Wikipedia’s article on Wiener Bankverein, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Subsidiaries

  • Kabel- und Drahtwerke

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1934Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1869Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
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