Raiffeisen Zentralbank of Austria had acquired loans from partly state owned financial institution Volksbanken AG. This is part of Raiffeisen's pledge to support the state bailout of the stricken bank last year. 

This was confirmed by Der Standard, without naming its sources. According to the news report, RZB is the privately held parent of Raiffeisen Bank International. In return, it would be obtaining loan assets worth between Eur300 million and Eur350 million or between US$392 million and US$458 million. This would form the first tranche of a package to wrap up its transactions until the third quarter of the year.

Volksbanken spokesman declined to provide a comment on the newspaper report. For its part, RZB did not immediately respond to an email seeking their side of the story.

Last June 13, RZB CEO Walter Rothensteiner said that he was hoping that Raiffeisen and RZB could finally forge a deal this month over Volksbanken. 

Raiffeisen had agreed to become part of the bailout plan to boost Volksbanken capital through the purchase of leasing assets. The goal was to increase Volksbanken's capital by Eur100 million and liquidity by Eur500 million.