OREANDA-NEWS. On July 02, 2008 renowned British financial magazine Euromoney held its annual Award for Excellence reception at the Vienna Hilton. Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG (RZB) and its CEE subsidiary Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG received once again the prestigious award for Excellence as "Best Bank in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)", reported the press-centre of Raiffeisen.

At the same time, the Raiffeisen Network Banks in Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Slovakia received awards as "Best Bank" in their country. The award for "Best Debt House in Bulgaria" went to the local Raiffeisenbank. The fact that Euromoney had chosen Vienna as the location for the ceremony to present the awards to Eastern European and Austrian banks underlines the city's increasing importance as a hub to the CEE countries.

This year the Award for Excellence for CEE was given to RZB and Raiffeisen International for the fourth consecutive year. "The decision of the jury confirms that we are on the right track. In a demanding market environment we were able to continue our profitable growth," said Walter Rothensteiner, CEO of RZB and Chairman of Raiffeisen International’s Supervisory Board. "The award honours that we have thoroughly advanced the integration of our acquired banks in 2007 and at the same time enlarged our client base by 1.6 million new customers," added Herbert Stepic, CEO of Raiffeisen International.