Wels and Gunskirchen: Raiffeisen banks in Upper Austria want to merge

The Raiffeisenbank Wels and the Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen in Upper Austria are apparently on the verge of a merger. According to a report by the Upper Austria news the executive boards and supervisory boards agree. The decision on the merger should be made at the respective general meetings of the cooperatives at the end of May. The merger would make the two banks one of the largest Raiffeisen banks in Austria with total assets of 2.57 billion euros.

To put it into perspective: There are 64 Raiffeisen banks in Upper Austria with their total 344 Sofas. Die Total assets the oe. Raiffeisenbanken was at the end of 2025 35.0 billion euros (+3.2 percent). The Raiffeisen Landesbank (RLB OÖ) acts as the central institution for the individual banks. Their consolidated balance sheet total amounted to at the end of 2025 48.7 billion euros (-1.2 percent).

Raiffeisenbank Wels, the significantly larger of the two banks with a balance sheet total of around two billion euros, is to be the namesake of the new institute. The headquarters would also remain in Wels. Gunskirchen becomes a large bank branch. All 16 branches – eleven in Wels, five in Gunskirchen – are to be retained. All of the almost 200 employees will also continue to be employed. There was no official statement from the two banks on Saturday.

“Informed circles”

According to him, there are reasons for the merger OÖN-Report, which is based on “informed circles”, several: The markets in which Wels and Gunskirchen operate would ideally complement each other. In addition, the large number of commercial customers require larger banks for financing, and increasing regulatory requirements also play a role.