BACKGROUND:Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) primarily affect men over 65 years old who often have many other diseases, with similar risk factors and pathobiological mechanisms to AAA. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of simple renal cysts (SRC), chronic kidney disease (CKD), and other kidney diseases (e.g. nephrolithiasis) among patients presenting with AAA.METHODS:Two groups of patients (97 AAA and 100 controls), with and without AAA, from the Surgical Clinic Charité, Berlin, Germany, were selected for the study. The control group consisted of patients who were evaluated for a kidney donation (n = 14) and patients who were evaluated for an early detection of a melanoma recurrence (n = 86). The AAA and control groups were matched for age and sex. Medical records were analyzed and computed tomography scans were reviewed for the presence of SRC and nephrolithiasis.RESULTS:SRC (74% vs. 57%; p<0.016) and CKD (30% vs. 8%; p<0.001) were both more common among AAA than control group patients. On multivariate analysis, CKD, but not SRC, showed a strong association with AAA.CONCLUSIONS:Knowledge about pathobiological mechanisms and association between CKD and AAA could provide better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for these patients.

This study analyzes how Austrian banks generated profits in their domestic business over the last two decades, i.e. from 1995 to 2016, while paying close attention to the heterogeneity in business models. We focus on the period after the global financial crisis (GFC) and the challenges it entails, in order to highlight the most important trends and their potential repercussions on the medium-term sustainability of banks’ profits and consequently Austria’s financial stability. We find that banks and their income grew strongly before the GFC at the expense of their margins, whereas this trend went into reverse after the crisis hit. Operating expenses increased steadily until recently, when cuts in staff-related expenses started to show effects. Higher credit risk costs were another consequence of the GFC, but the sector-wide ratio of nonperforming loans never surpassed 5%. All of these developments resulted in strong volatility in the return on (average) assets (ROA) after the onset of the GFC and – supported by historically low loan loss provisioning – a recent return to pre-crisis levels. Overall, smaller local banks generated above-average ROAs. Large banks underperformed, while large regional banks performed in line with the banking sector average. In the near future, improvements in operating profitability in a highly competitive market are likely to depend on banks’ pricing power and their ability to use the currently calmer environment to address structural cost issues, to tap new sources of income whose pricing adequately reflects risks and to ready themselves for the digitalization of their business.

This study analyzes how Austrian banks generated profits in their domestic business over the last two decades, i.e. from 1995 to 2016, while paying close attention to the heterogeneity in business models. We focus on the period after the global financial crisis (GFC) and the challenges it entails, in order to highlight the most important trends and their potential repercussions on the medium-term sustainability of banks’ profits and consequently Austria’s financial stability. We find that banks and their income grew strongly before the GFC at the expense of their margins, whereas this trend went into reverse after the crisis hit. Operating expenses increased steadily until recently, when cuts in staff-related expenses started to show effects. Higher credit risk costs were another consequence of the GFC, but the sector-wide ratio of nonperforming loans never surpassed 5%. All of these developments resulted in strong volatility in the return on (average) assets (ROA) after the onset of the GFC and – supported by historically low loan loss provisioning – a recent return to pre-crisis levels. Overall, smaller local banks generated above-average ROAs. Large banks underperformed, while large regional banks performed in line with the banking sector average. In the near future, improvements in operating profitability in a highly competitive market are likely to depend on banks’ pricing power and their ability to use the currently calmer environment to address structural cost issues, to tap new sources of income whose pricing adequately reflects risks and to ready themselves for the digitalization of their business.

This study analyzes the driving forces behind the profitability of Austrian banking subsidiaries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) from 2003 to 2015, with a particular focus on the aftermath of the global financial crisis, which marked a turning point for their risk-return characteristics. We start off with an analysis of operating income and expense trends and delve into an analysis of credit risk costs. Then we look at large extraordinary one-off cost items before summing up with a long-term revenue bridge and an analysis of the most recent risk-return metrics. Overall, we find that the subsidiaries generated substantial profits, which have to be seen in the light of significant writedowns of their book values at the parent level. Regarding current challenges, operating profits are under pressure from falling net interest margins and fading organic growth, while remaining foreign currency loans might lead to further one-off costs, which in the past offset efficiency improvements. Credit risk also remains high in some countries, but a positive trend has emerged over the past years and provisioning levels have improved. One lesson learned in this respect is that rapid credit growth before the crisis typically led to high nonperforming loan (NPL) ratios, which now weigh on some subsidiaries’ ability to lend. Looking forward, banks continue to face a challenging environment in the CESEE region with little low-hanging fruit, as the speed of macroeconomic catching-up has slowed and low interest rates have taken hold. Therefore, Austrian banks’ subsidiaries should diversify their income base, maintain their operating cost discipline and continue to strive for risk-adequately priced products in order to keep their profitability on a sustainable footing.

Austrian banks have early taken advantage of Austria’s geographical proximity to the Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) economies and expanded into the region over the past two decades. CESEE has been the key growth market for Austrian banks, which benefited strongly from the catching-up process in financial services. Having steadily reinforced their foreign business focus on the CESEE region, Austrian banks operated 63 fully consolidated retail-oriented subsidiaries in 18 countries in CESEE with total assets of EUR 265 billion at year-end 2013. Compared with other Western European banks, Austrian banks are among the biggest players, holding a market share of about 20% in CESEE, while Italian, French and German banks hold shares of 17%, 15% and 11%, respectively. Austrian banks’ claims are largest on the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Hungary. Turkey is also among the largest obligors when the estimated total exposure of Austrian banks in domestic and foreign ownership is taken into consideration.2 The aggregate exposure to CESEE has grown moderately since 2009, but there have been large differences in how exposures to individual countries developed. While Austrian banks’ foreign claims on Ukraine have decreased markMacrofinancial Developments in Ukraine, russia and turkey from an austrian Financial stability Perspective

The Czech Republic and Slovakia belong to the small and increasingly concentrated group of countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) whose banking markets have continued to generate substantial profits for Austrian banks also after the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008. This short study sheds light on why Austrian subsidiaries have been able to maintain their profitability in these two countries especially when compared to those in other CESEE countries. We find that the strong quality of their asset portfolios is the main contributing factor; also, the Czech and Slovak markets now offer net interest margins well above Austrian levels, while the credit risk level is close to that in Austria. By contrast, several other CESEE markets have recorded worsening credit quality and, consequently, dwindling returns. Despite some downside risks related to the low interest rate environment, the openness of the Czech and Slovak economies and a potential intensification in competition, it seems that, from a current perspective, Czech and Slovak subsidiaries can be considered the most stable earnings generators in Austrian banks’ international portfolio.