Briefs: No. 2 Austria Bank Opens U.S. Finance Unit

The second-largest Austrian bank is putting down more roots in the United States.

Raffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG, also known as RZB Austria, established a wholly owned, New York-based finance company. The U.S. subsidiary, RZB Finance LLC, will be headed by Dieter Beintrexler. It will be used as a lending office for trade and commodity finance and for issuing and confirming letters of credit for U.S., European, and Latin American corporations and banks doing business in central and eastern Europe.

The Vienna-based bank said it also plans to originate and syndicate loans in the United States.

RZB Austria, which has $90 billion of assets, said it will continue to maintain a representative office in New York as a liaison between U.S. and Austrian financial institutions and corporations.

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