Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) made a consolidated profit of €1,127 million outside Russia in the first nine months of 2026, up 10% on a year earlier, and main revenues rose 8% to €4,971 million. In the same statement the group reported the closing of its acquisition of Garanti BBVA Group Romania.
Customer loans excluding Russia grew 8% to €109 billion in the year to date. The net interest margin was 2.29% for the nine months, unchanged on a year earlier, and widened to 2.34% in the third quarter from 2.27% in the second.
AUSTRIA'S TWO LARGEST GROUPS
RBI and Erste Group are the two largest banking groups in Austria, according to TGB's market profile, ahead of UniCredit Bank Austria, BAWAG Group and the regional Raiffeisen Landesbanken. The country has 445 credit institutions, including 276 Raiffeisen co-operatives, and concentration is low by euro-area standards: the five largest held 37.1% of sector assets in 2025 on ECB data.
In Romania, RBI's local bank agreed to buy 100% of Garanti BBVA's franchise for €591 million. The Garanti business was the country's tenth-largest financial institution by assets, with a market share of around 2% and total assets of €4 billion at the end of 2025, BBVA said, and its Romanian bank is expected to become the third-largest institution in the country by total assets, according to a press report citing the bank.
COSTS, RISK AND CAPITAL
The cost/income ratio edged up to 53.0% for the nine months from 52.8% a year earlier, and reached 54.4% in the third quarter against 51.0% in the second. The provisioning ratio rose to 0.19% of average customer loans from 0.14%, with 0.18% in the third quarter after 0.04% in the second.
Return on equity was 10.2% for the nine months, with 11.7% in the third quarter after 13.9% in the second. The transitional CET1 ratio, including profit, stood at 15.4% at the end of September against 15.5% at the end of 2025, while the NPE ratio fell to 1.5% from 1.7%. Chief executive Michael Höllerer said the results left the bank well placed to keep growing.
OUTLOOK AND ADDIKO
In its outlook for 2026, which excludes Russia, includes Garanti and assumes the Addiko deal settles in the fourth quarter, RBI expects net interest income above €4.5 billion, net fee and commission income of around €2.2 billion, a cost/income ratio of around 55%, loan growth of around 9% excluding acquisitions and a consolidated return on equity of around 13%. That return includes a one-off boost of about 310 basis points from Addiko, based on an assumed acceptance rate of 94.84%.
RBI is still waiting for regulators to approve the Addiko purchase and now expects to keep all of Addiko's subsidiaries, as the originally planned carve-out of some subsidiaries has become unlikely, the bank said. In the medium term it aims for a return on equity of at least 13% excluding Russia, provisions and legal costs for foreign currency loans in Poland and Rasperia litigation costs.
THE TGB VIEW
RBI ranks 40th in the TGB Bank Rankings for Europe, with equity at 10.0% of assets and a 2025 return on equity of 6.5% on a group basis, against 13.3% at its Austrian rival Erste Group, ranked 28th. Excluding Russia, RBI's return was 10.2% in the first nine months, and the 13% or so it guides for 2026 includes about 310 basis points from the one-off Addiko effect, so its underlying return is still well short of Erste's. The fourth quarter is the test: the guidance, which includes Garanti and assumes Addiko settles, puts the CET1 ratio at around 14.5% against 15.4% at the end of September.
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