MATTERSBURG Commerzialbank: Financial fiasco becomes a political issue

The Burgenland banking crash will now be the subject of a special state parliament - a U committee is also emerging. The scandal finally becomes a problem for Doskozil

Wolfgang Weisgram, Katharina Mittelstaedt, Renate Graber

Burgenland Governor Hans Peter Doskozil, normally an offensive, intellectual shirt-sleeve, begins to be thoughtful.

Photo: APA / SCHLAGER

The crash of the commercial bank Mattersburg has finally hit the political arena since the weekend. SPÖ governor Hans Peter Doskozil reacted furiously to media reports on Monday that state companies had withdrawn money prematurely due to insider knowledge. Soon afterwards he admitted that the national subsidiary RMB had at least tried to do so. Here are the most important points to understand the now looming mud battle.

Question: Who withdrew what from the commercial bank accounts and when?

Answer: Relevant rumors have been around since the bank closed on July 14th. The courier has specified: The RMB - a state subsidiary that is responsible for processing EU funding - withdrew 1.2 million euros late in the evening, two hours before the shutdown. Doskozil called this a lie on Monday, later admitted that at least an attempt was made to do so. But also stated that up to ten million were actually withdrawn 24 hours before the shutdown. By whom? He didn't say that.

Question: The bank's crash is therefore also a political issue. Why?

Answer: The bank manager was also the head of the Bundesliga soccer club. SV Mattersburg was also the sponsoring association of the football academy, of which the state is the majority owner. Politicians like to bask in the soccer sun. Now you realize that this sun can also cause sunburn.

Question: At the center of the dispute is the resigned Economic Councilor Christian Illedits. What is he accused of?

Answer: Illedits is a football friend of bank manager Martin Pucher, also connected as a former chairman of the ASV Rasporak / Draßburg sponsored by the bank and as a member of the supervisory board of the football academy. In his sixties, SV Mattersburg gave him a ten deca gold sheet with an engraving. Today's value: more than 5000 euros. That was the official reason for his resignation.

Question: Was the bank close to a political party?

Answer: No. Pucher wasn't red, not black, not blue or green. But exclusively football.

Question: Then why is there so much political fuss?

Answer: Since February there has been a single red government and an opposition of turquoise, blue and green condemned to wallflower existence. The will not give up now to attack the almost overwhelming Governor Hans Peter Doskozil, who also has national political ambitions. He wants - maybe wanted - to give the SPÖ a new direction.

Question: What effects does the Burgenland scandal have on the federal SPÖ?

Answer: Doskozil was recently one of the most active SPÖ politicians nationwide. Only last week he gave ongoing interviews in which he doubted Pamela Rendi-Wagner's whereabouts at the top of the SPÖ. Some rumor: he wanted to divert attention from the commercial bank case. Insofar as the SPÖ is not politically involved in the scandal, Rendi-Wagner could even benefit from the cause: Your constant critic Doskozil has been under pressure at least since the resignation of his regional councilor.

Question: The Vienna election is due on October 11th. Doesn't the quarrels in red Burgenland come at an inopportune time for the Viennese SPÖ?

Answer: Of course, it's not pleasant. The state party is still calm: "The impact of a criminal case in Mattersburg on Vienna will be limited," says the SPÖ Vienna. "After all, it is a Burgenland scandal."

Question: Where did all that money go from the bank?

Answer: From the current perspective, a business volume of around 680 million euros was falsified in the Mattersburger regional bank, loans and own deposits that the bank claims to have had with other Austrian commercial banks. And that with total assets of around 800 million euros. The question that the investigators now have to clarify: Where did that money go that really existed? There were also real loans - but here too the bankers are unlikely to have shown a particularly lucky knack: the rate of non-performing loans was a very high eight percent (NLP rate, it relates to the balance sheet total). In addition, there were large deposits and withdrawals in cash, which, according to statements from ex-bank boss Martin Pucher and ex-manager K. Boss Pucher, was personally responsible. What Pucher did with the cash has not yet been clarified.

Question: How much money has actually flowed out of the bank?

Answer: That is the subject of the investigation. But what is already clear: For decades, the money was used to finance a loss-making bank. It had little (real) business, expenses for branches in places where no bank would otherwise get lost, and the institute paid its corporate customers high interest, most recently 0.5 percent. That it trotzdem showed high interest income, was due to loan interest of up to 20 percent, but the loans behind it were invented. Some of the money also ended up with the state. The bank showed (fictitious) profits and paid taxes accordingly. (Wolfgang Weisgram, Katharina Mittelstaedt, Renate Graber, 5.8.2020)