• Net interest income of € 2,596 million (down 4.7 per cent y-o-y)
• Operating income of € 3,885 million (down 5.2 per cent y-o-y)
• General administrative expenses increased to € 2,336 million (up 2.2 per cent y-o-y)
• Net provisioning for impairment losses fell to € 623 million (down 20.2 per cent y-o-y)
• One-off items of € 272 million in Q1 
• Profit before tax improved to €1,115 million (up 8.1 per cent y-o-y)
• Consolidated profit considerably increased to € 842 million (up 13.0 per cent y-o-y)
• NPL Ratio increased to 10.0 per cent (up 1.4 percentage points compared to FY 2011)
• Coverage Ratio declined to 65.8 per cent (down 2.6 percentage points compared to FY 2011)
• Core Tier 1 Ratio (total risk) significantly increased to 10.2 per cent (up 1.1 percentage points compared to FY 2011), including retained earnings, it was 10.9 per cent
• Tier 1 ratio (total risk) increased to 10.7 per cent (up 0.8 percentage points compared to FY 2011)

All figures are based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) posted a consolidated profit (after tax and non-controlling interests) of € 842 million for the first nine months of 2012, which represents an increase of 13 per cent compared to the first nine months of the preceding year (1-9 2011: € 745 million). RBI's profit before tax rose by 8 per cent to € 1,115 million (1-9 2011: € 1,032 million) and thus exceeded the € 1 billion mark even more than in the preceding year. Profit after tax amounted to € 889 million, an increase of 17 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier (1-9 2011: € 760 million). Earnings per share rose from € 3.06 in the first three quarters of 2011 to € 3.55, an increase of 16.1 per cent.

"We achieved a pleasing result in the first three quarters despite the weak economic growth in Europe, the measures to improve our capital ratio and the low interest rate environment weighing on our net interest income. This is on the one hand the result of our diversification, which enables us to counterbalance weaker developments in some markets with good developments in others, such as Russia and Romania. On the other hand, numerous efficiency efforts are taking effect, and we have our costs well under control," said CEO Herbert Stepic.

Net provisioning for impairment losses down to € 623 million

Compared to the same period last year, net provisioning for impairment losses contracted by € 158 million to € 623 million in the first nine months of 2012. Sharp declines were recorded primarily in Hungary (minus € 226 million) where loan loss provisions are, however, still at a high level. Russia posted a significant contraction of € 34 million compared to the same period last year. Various individual cases resulted in new allocations to loan loss provisions for corporate customers in Slovakia, Romania, Poland, China and at Group head office. The rise in Poland resulted from the first-time consolidation of Polbank, among other factors.

Return on Equity before tax increases to 14.1 per cent

The return on equity (ROE) before tax for the first nine months of 2012 was 14.1 per cent, based on profit before tax of € 1,115 million (up 8 per cent) and average equity of € 10.6 billion (up 5 per cent). ROE was therefore 0.4 percentage points higher than in the same period in the previous year.

Number of business outlets grew due to acquisition of Polbank

The number of business outlets as of 30 September 2012 was 3.115, an increase of 6.4 per cent compared with 31 December 2011. This increase was mainly caused by the acquisition of Polbank. The average number of staff increased year-on-year by 1,639 to 61,645. Excluding Polbank, a reduction of staff of 1,671 would have been achieved. As of 30 September 2012, the customer base stood at around 14.1 million.

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You can access the interim report at http://qr032012.rbinternational.com and the German version at http://zb032012.rbinternational.com.

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Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) regards both Austria, where it is a leading corporate and investment bank, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market. In CEE, RBI operates an extensive network of subsidiary banks, leasing companies and a range of other specialised financial service providers in 17 markets.

RBI is the only Austrian bank with a presence in both the world's financial centres and in Asia, the group's further geographical area of focus.

In total, around 61,000 employees service about 14.1 million customers through more than 3,100 business outlets, the great majority of which are located in CEE.

RBI is a fully-consolidated subsidiary of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB). RZB indirectly owns around 78.5 per cent of the common stock, the remainder is in free float. RBI's shares are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. RZB is the central institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group, the country's largest banking group, and serves as the head office of the entire RZB Group, including RBI.

For further information please contact:
Ingrid Krenn-Ditz (+43-1-71 707-6055, ingrid.krenn-ditz@rbinternational.com) or
Michael Palzer (+43-1-71 707-2828, michael.palzer@rbinternational.com).
http://www.rbinternational.com, http://www.rzb.at