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Details of developments in the Corporates Division are included in Bank Austria Creditanstalt’s segment reporting section of the management report. This includes CA IB Corporate Finance as a profit centre and also responsibility for individual large-volume investment banking products, which were transferred from the Corporates Division to the new Markets & Investment Banking Division (MIB) at the beginning of 2007.
2006 was a successful year for the Corporates Division as far as operating business was concerned. Total revenues increased by 5% to over one billion euros. Net interest income remained high (the continuing pressure on margins in loans business was offset by improvements in deposits) and dynamic revenue growth was generated by net non-interest income, which increased by about 20%, including net income from fees and commissions in particular. A special role was played by the competitive strengths of the Corporates Division: international business, medium-term and long-term financing using capital market instruments and structuring expertise as well as commercial risk management derivatives.
Profit before tax – adjusted for one-off effects – increased by 8%. With 22% of total revenues but only 16% of total costs, the Corporates Division accounted (on an adjusted basis) for almost two-fifths (38%) of BA-CA’s total result and recorded an ROE before tax of 23.3%. The Division is therefore not only an important pillar of BA-CA but also compares favourably within UniCredit Group despite the differences in size.