Austria should set up a so-called bad bank to manage the assets of Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International AG rather than pursue a riskier strategy of shuttering the nationalized lender, Austrian Central Bank Governor Ewald Nowotny said, Bloomberg News reported. The bad bank would manage about 17.8 billion euros ($24.7 billion) of Hypo Alpe’s assets, Nowotny said today on Austrian state broadcaster ORF. A task force formed to consider the bank’s future concluded that the costs of letting it go insolvent exceed the benefits, he said.

The heads of Austria's two ruling parties on Tuesday backed the idea of letting a commission of experts look into the 2009 emergency nationalisation of lender Hypo Alpe Adria, a step that could head off a parliamentary investigation of the deal, Reuters reported. The takeover of Hypo from Bavarian state bank BayernLB and other owners staved off a collapse that would have sent shock waves across the region a year after Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers went down. But Hypo's mounting costs have made it a huge headache for the ruling Social Democrats and conservative People's Party.

Creditors of Hypo Alpe Adria should contribute to the costs of winding down the nationalised Austrian lender, the finance ministry said on Thursday, listing insolvency or voluntary debt haircuts as possible options, Reuters reported. The comments widen a split between the government and bank supervisors over how to handle Hypo, whose chronic capital needs have required 4.8 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in taxpayer support since 2008.

Austria has not ruled out letting nationalised lender Hypo Alpe Adria go bust even though this option poses many risks, Finance Minister Michael Spindelegger told parliament on Monday, Reuters reported. He was speaking after ratings agency Moody's fired a shot across the government's bows late on Friday by downgrading the bank and its home province of Carinthia. "I do not exclude any option but I warn against shooting from the hip," Spindelegger told a debate about the government's handling of the bank it had to nationalise in 2009.

Austria scrapped its plan to have healthy commercial lenders back a "bad bank" for toxic assets at nationalised Hypo Alpe Adria and will look now at creating its own wind-down vehicle, which would increase state debt, officials said, Reuters reported. Resistance from other banks and problems with setting up a bad bank in a way that would keep its debt off state books under European rules scuppered the plan, Finance Minister Michael Spindelegger said after a high-level meeting at the chancellery on Monday.

Austria's finance minister no longer rules out letting nationalised lender Hypo Alpe Adria go bust, he told a newspaper, softening his earlier position, Reuters reported. Michael Spindelegger said he would still prefer to get commercial banks to support a "bad bank" that would absorb toxic assets from Hypo, which Austria had to nationalise in 2009, but said he would now consider other options. "If no solution is found with the banks, nothing is ruled out. For me, it's about finding the most favourable solution for taxpayers.

A disorderly insolvency of nationalised Austrian lender Hypo Alpe Adria could cost nearly 25 billion euros ($34 billion), the central bank has warned the government, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Der Standard reported that a letter sent in November by the central bank and a special Hypo task force said letting Hypo go bust may quickly cost the public sector and subordinated creditors of Hypo up to 16 billion euros.

Austria should at least consider allowing troubled lender Hypo Alpe Adria to go bust, a prominent economist said on Monday, opposing the official line in an increasingly heated debate about how to handle the nationalised bank, Reuters reported. The government, central bank and a special Hypo task force have warned that a Hypo insolvency might trigger a chain reaction that could suck in other banks and ruin Austria's reputation on international capital markets. Austria took over Hypo in 2009 after the bank's breakneck expansion pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy.

The central banks of Austria and Hungary should seek a “workable and fair” solution to the problems Austrian banks are facing with Hungary, and shouldn’t become each others’ enemies, Austrian central bank Governor Ewald Nowotny said Friday, The Wall Street Journal Emerging Europe blog reported. “Close relationships are not necessarily always easy relationships. Our two central banks recently faced some difficult issues revolving around some foreign-owned banks,” Mr.

Letting nationalised lender Hypo Alpe Adria go bust is not the way to shelter taxpayers from the bank's woes, Finance Minister Michael Spindelegger said on Wednesday, dismissing talk that such a move may still be an option, Reuters reported. He told parliament the best way forward remained the government's plan to get commercial banks to support a "bad bank" that would absorb toxic assets from Hypo, which Austria had to nationalise in 2009.