About APA – Austria Press Agency

APA - Austria Press Agency is the country's national news agency and the leading information service provider for Austria. Austrian newspapers and the ORF TV and Radio network own the agency.

The APA-Group includes the APA news agency, as well as ten subsidiaries. Its work focuses on the areas of a news agency, photo agency, information management, and information technology. The APA editorial departments supply real-time news service in word, image, graphics, audio and video. The subsidiaries offer dissemination, research, and knowledge management services, as well as information technology solutions. The APA-Group targets its work towards professional users (information managers, PR experts) in the fields of media, politics, public authorities, and economics. APA fulfils its duties independent from the state, governmental, and political party influences and in accordance with the principles of reliability, speed, balanced information and avoidance of any one-sidedness and party influence.

The APA as a CEE Agency

Because of its geopolitical position at the centre of Europe, Austria ranks as one of the most important information "hubs" between Western and Eastern Europe. As the Austrian news agency, the APA – Austria Presse Agentur plays a key role in this. In recent years, the APA has succeeded in continuously expanding its reporting about Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.

In addition to exchanging information with national news agencies the APA has put together a network of correspondents. Competent journalists report in accordance with the APA quality criteria, namely speed, independence and balance, on events in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria as well as Romania and provide reliable information from this economically and politically important part of Europe.

About Bank Austria UniCredit Group

Bank Austria, a member of UniCredit Group, the leading European banking group, is the largest and most profitable bank in Austria. It is a modern and dynamic universal bank giving its customers access to international financial markets.

Bank Austria has emerged from Austrian banks with a rich tradition. In 1991, "Länderbank" and "Zentralsparkasse der Gemeinde Wien" merged to form "Bank Austria". 1997 saw the merger of Bank Austria and Creditanstalt, and the integration of Bank Austria and HypoVereinsbank (HVB) took place in 2000. Bank Austria Creditanstalt became a member of UniCredit Group in 2005. Since 2008, the bank has been operating under the "Bank Austria" brand name. Bank Austria is UniCredit Group's hub for its banking network in Central and Eastern Europe.

The US financial magazine "Global Finance" named Bank Austria "Best Bank in Austria". Bank Austria has repeatedly been nominated "Best Bank" and "Bank of the Year" by "Euromoney" and "The Banker".

Bank Austria in Central- and Eastern Europe

Bank Austria was the first western bank to start business activities in a former COMECON country. Since 1975, when Bank Austria opened a representative office in Budapest, and especially since the political and economic changes that took place in 1989 and 1990, Central- and Eastern Europe has been one of the key regions of the bank. Since 2005, Bank Austria has been a member of UniCredit Group and in this Group functions as the CEE holding unit and manages the banking business in this region. In the CEE region, UniCredit operates the largest international banking network with around 4,000 branches and outlets. For further information please visit our website at www.bankaustria.at.