Global Finance chose RZB Group as the Best Custodian in Central& Eastern Europe and in Austria

RZB won award because of outstanding servicequality and innovative products. CAN and e.Custody unrivaledproducts.

Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG (RZB)and itsNetwork Banks in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were selected as"Best Sub-Custodian in Central and Eastern Europe". RZBalso won the local award as the best custodian in Austria. Custodyis the business of handling and administering securities.Global Financemagazine named the"World''s BestSub-Custodians 2004" in its forthcoming summer issue.

"RZB combines a close-meshed network in Central and EasternEurope with outstanding service quality and innovative products.Its custody services'' main competitive advantage is thecapability to continuously develop new services and products aheadof the industry standard," says Walter Rothensteiner, Chairmanof RZB''s Managing Board.

"RZB sees constantly growing volumes in its custodybusiness: In 2003, it has increased by 42 per cent to EUR 128billion. The awards also honour RZB''s achievements, enablingour customers to benefit from unrivalled custody products",says Karl Stoss, who is the Member of RZB''s Managing Boardresponsible for Custody. He points especially to RZB''scorporate action notificationCAN, a unique reporting tooland to the bank''se.Custodyservices, which have putRZB''s Custody at the competitive edge in Austria and Centraland Eastern Europe.

"The world of sub-custodians is often invisible to theend-users of custody services, but is critical to globalinvesting", said Global Finance''s publisher ChristopherGiarraputo."The award winning institutions have the knowledgeof the local markets and the dedicated people and systems to makethe whole process work seamlessly."

The trophy for Asia and for the Middle East went toHSBC, the winner for Western Europe wasBNPParibasand the award for the Americas was won byCitigroup. Criteria for choosing the winners by a jury ofGlobal finance editors - with input from expert sources - werecustomer relations, quality of service, competitive pricing, valueadding services, technology platforms, post-settlement operations,business-continuity plans and local expertise.



Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG (RZB), Vienna, isthe central institution of the AustrianRaiffeisen BankingGroup, the country''s most powerful banking group. RZB is aleading corporate and investment bank in Austria and also considersCEE as its home market, where it operates a network of 15subsidiary banks with more than 800 banking outlets, as well as tworepresentative offices, in 16 markets of the region via itssubsidiaryRaiffeisen International Bank-Holding AG. InSeptember 2003,Financial TimesmagazineTheBankerhas awarded the prestigious prize"Bank of theYear 2003" to RZB in Austria and its network banks in Albania,Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro andSlovakia. In March 2004, Global Finance announced that RZB and itsNetwork Banks were selected as winners of the"Best Bank inEastern Europe and Central Asia"-award.Banka eKursimeve(Albania),Priorbank(Belarus),Raiffeisen Bank d.d.(Bosnia and Herzegovina),Raiffeisen Bank S.A.(Romania),Raiffeisenbanka.d.(Serbia and Montenegro) andTatra banka a.s.(Slovakia) won the"Best Bank" awards for theirrespective countries.