• Net interest income down to € 1,716 million (down 3.6 per cent y-o-y)
• Operating income decreases to € 2,613 million (down 4.9 per cent y-o-y)
• General administrative expenses flat at € 1,518 million (up 0.2 per cent y-o-y)
• Net provisioning for impairment losses slightly falls to € 400 million (down 1.3 per cent y-o-y)
• One-off items of € 272 million in Q1
• Profit before tax improves to € 927 million (up 5.6 per cent y-o-y)
• Consolidated profit considerably increases to € 701 million (up 13.9 per cent y-o-y)
• NPL ratio up to 9.8 per cent (plus 1.1 percentage points compared to FY 2011)
• Coverage ratio declines to 65.8 per cent (down 2.6 percentage points compared to FY 2011)
• Core Tier 1 ratio (total risk) significantly increases to 10.1 per cent (up 1.0 percentage points compared to FY 2011)
• Tier 1 ratio (total risk) increases to 10.6 per cent (up 0.7 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 € 701 million for the first six months of 2012, which represents an increase of 13.9 per cent compared to the first half of the preceding year (H1 2011: € 615 million). RBI's profit before tax rose by 5.6 per cent to € 927 million (H1 2011: € 879 million). Profit after tax amounted to € 734 million, an increase of 8.3 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier (H1 2011: € 677 million). Earnings per share rose from € 2.65 in the first half of 2011 to € 3.09 for the same period in 2012, an increase of 16.5 per cent.

"Considering the difficult economic environment in the Eurozone and the huge efforts we undertook to strengthen our capital ratio, we are pleased with our results. We increased our core tier 1 ratio significantly. We closed the acquisition of Polbank at the end of April, which will improve our position in Poland decisively. And if we exclude Polbank, we were even able to slightly decrease our administrative expenses. These are all important achievements. Our diversified business model once again proved to be right. The fact that Central and Eastern Europe developed significantly better than the Eurozone makes me confident for the second half of 2012", said CEO Herbert Stepic.

Net provisioning for impairment losses declined slightly

Net provisioning for impairment losses, at € 400 million in the first half of the year, was 1 per cent below the prior year. At € 496 million, net allocations to individual loan loss provisions were 15 per cent higher than in the previous year due to several individual cases at Group head office, in China and in Poland, while there was a net release of portfolio based loan loss provisions of € 91 million (prior year: € 23 million).

ROE before tax nearly unchanged at 17 per cent

The increase in profit before tax of 6 per cent was nearly equal to the increase in average equity (the value underlying the ROE calculation), which grew by 6 per cent year-on-year to € 10.7 billion due to retained earnings. The return on equity before tax was 17.3 per cent in the first half of the year, 0.2 percentage points higher than the comparable period in 2011.

RZB Group clearly surpasses EBA-capital requirement

To strengthen the financial system, the European Banking Authority (EBA) decided in the autumn of 2011 to implement stricter capital requirements for about 70 system-relevant banks in the EU. As part of this initiative, a core capital ratio (core tier 1 as per the EBA definition) of 9 per cent was defined as the target value which had to be reached by 30 June 2012. Not including the net profit generated during the first half of the year, the RZB Group's ratio – RBI was not subject to the EBA analysis – was 10.0 per cent. It was even 10.6 per cent including the net profit for the period.

As of 30 June 2012, RBI's core tier 1 ratio (total) was10.1 per cent, and its tier 1 ratio (total) amounted to 10.6 per cent. The own funds ratio increased to 14.8 per cent.

Number of business outlets grew due to acquisition of Polbank

The number of business outlets as of 30 June 2012 was 3,153, an increase of 8 per cent compared with 31 December 2011. This increase was mainly caused by the first time consolidation of Polbank in May. The average number of staff was 61,683, a rise of 1,703 persons compared to the first half of 2011. As of 30 June 2012, RBI had 60,918 employees, an increase of almost 3 per cent compared to 31 December 2011. The customer base stood at around 14.2 million as per the end of the first half of 2012.

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You can access the interim report at http://qr022012.rbinternational.com and the German version at http://zb022012.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 14.2 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.