The roots of Hypo Alpe-Adria go deep: founded in 1896, it has accumulated more than 100 years of business experience. Initially it concentrated on financing public institutions and housing construction. Hypo Kärnten - as it was then known - became a universal bank in 1982. In 1988 the Bank took the first step on the road to international expansion by opening a leasing subsidiary in Udine. It became a public limited company in 1991, and in 1992 Grazer Wechselseitige Versicherung joined the Province of Carinthia as the second shareholder. This marked the beginning of a new era for Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank.

The expansion of Hypo Alpe-Adria into its core market, the Alps to Adriatic Region, followed step by step. The establishment of the first Austrian bank branch in Vicenza, Italy, under EU law followed with Austria’s accession to the EU in 1995. In the same year leasing companies were started in Ljubljana in Slovenia and Zagreb in Croatia.

The years that followed saw the opening of further leasing outlets in Slovenia and the expansion of the branch network in Italy and Croatia. In 1997 the number of staff at Hypo Alpe-Adria breached the 500 barrier, accompanied by the start of construction of the present Klagenfurt headquarters, which was completed in three phases by 2002.

By the beginning of the new millennium, Hypo Alpe-Adria already had over 1.000 employees. In the following year it entered the market in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2002 Hypo Alpe-Adria’s expansion took it into Serbia and Montenegro. The Group’s dynamic progress continued in 2003, when it was acclaimed as investor of the year in Bosnia and Herzegovina, opened a leasing branch in Munich.

Hypo Alpe-Adria is today active in Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Ukraine. It numbers some 8.000 employees at approximately 350 locations, who take care for 1.2 millionen customers.