Less entanglement

Neos want Hypo dividends for education projects

Hypo Landesbank recently came in for a lot of criticism because of its lending business with Signa.

(Bild: Mathis Fotografie)

Hypo Landesbank has repeatedly hit the headlines in recent months due to the collapse of the Benko card house, including loans worth millions. The Neos want to depoliticize the Vorarlberg Landesbank.

The Vorarlberg Neos Claudia Gamon and Johannes Gasser see a particular problem in the bank's entanglement with politics. Banking issues would become political issues and vice versa due to the interdependence - the state holds 77 percent of the bank's ordinary shares.

76.87 percent

of Hypo Landesbank's ordinary shares are held by the state of Vorarlberg. The Neos see this as a problem.

Dividends for promising educational projects
The Pinken believe that this should now come to an end and are therefore calling for the state's stake in the bank to be transferred to a charitable foundation. This foundation should then invest the annual dividend in educational projects with a promising future. "The Vorarlberg Education Foundation should guarantee that the Hypo dividend clearly benefits the future of the state instead of seeping into the general state budget and being used to plug budget holes. Our proposal is also a further incentive for provincial politicians to use taxpayers' money sparingly," explains Gamon.

A new organizational structure would entail "a depoliticization of the Hypo Supervisory Board and a depoliticization of the owners' interests", adds Johannes Gasser. Everyone knows that the bank's structures need to be changed, he says. A pink proposal is now on the table, which will certainly provide plenty of material for discussion.