Österreichische Postsparkasse

Österreichische Postsparkasse AG

Type	Public
Industry	Finance and insurance
Founded	1882
Headquarters	Vienna, Austria
Key people	Stephan Koren (CEO)
Products	Commercial banking, Investment banking, Private banking, Asset management
Revenue	€ 56,271 mn (2004, as part of the merged BAWAG P.S.K.)
Number of employees	~6.280 (2004, as part of BAWAG P.S.K.)
Website	www.psk.at

Österreichische Postsparkasse (P.S.K.) is a postal savings bank in Austria. It was owned by the Austrian Mail and thus by the government. It merged on 1 October 2005, with the BAWAG to form BAWAG P.S.K..

Österreichische Postsparkasse was founded by law in 1882. On 28 May, the parliamentary bill "...on the introduction of postal savings banks in kingdoms and countries represented by the Imperial Assembly" was passed in the Imperial Council (Reichsrat). The government bill was drawn up by Georg Coch, the founder and first director of the bank.

The first headquarters of the "k.k. Postsparcassen-Amt" (Imperial-Royal Postal Savings Office) was opened on 12 January 1883 in the former Dominican Monastery building on Wollzeile street in the first Viennese district Innere Stadt. About 4,000 post office branches located throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire began offering their postal savings service to customers. The idea behind offering financial services at post offices was to promote public awareness and encourage saving. The added benefit of the system was to make important funds available to the state and to guarantee the security of the deposits with government liability.

In October 1883, Coch introduced a revolutionary innovation, the system of cashless transfers (Scheckverkehr), whereby a written instruction authorised the debit of one account and the credit to another. This radically changed the monetary system and made the P.S.K. into the centre of payment transactions. The new system of cashless transfers started spreading throughout the world. The bank also saw the expansion of the foreign payment transaction system. Giro agreements were signed with the Austro-Hungarian Bank and other foreign postal savings bank throughout Europe.

In 1906 the new headquarters in Vienna designed by the architect Otto Wagner was constructed. It is located at what is today Georg-Coch-Platz in the first district Innere Stadt along the Ringstraße boulevard. The building is one of the most important examples of Viennese Jugendstil which is also known as The Vienna Secession. Its clear lines and the cool elegance, which is achieved by the usage of steel, concrete and glass, give the building a solid and impenetrable look. The skylight in the main hall nevertheless allows for natural light to reach the interior of the building, making it light and airy at the same time. The headquarters building became the most recognisable trademark of the postal savings bank.