We stand up for your needs

With about 600,000 members and more than 6,000 employees, the Styrian Raiffeisen cooperatives have become indispensable for the local economy. And one thing they all have in common, is the Styrian Raiffeisen Association (Raiffeisenverband Steiermark) as their representative body.

Our main task is to carry out the legally required supervision of our associated cooperatives – in their own interests and the interests of their individual members – as well as the annual audit according to the regulations of the Austrian Banking Act.

Another important area of our work is the consulting and support of our members in all cooperative, legal, fiscal, economic, educational and organisational matters by our respective departments.

In terms of interest representation, we stand up for the needs of our members and assume communal tasks to look after the collective interests of the Styrian Raiffeisen organisation.

With the help of our professional and dedicated employees, it is our aim to lastingly secure and improve the economic performance and independence of our members.

Structure and History

The highest organ of the “Raiffeisenverband Steiermark”, which has the legal form of an association, is the so-called “Verbandstag”, comparable to the general assembly of a cooperative.

In addition to the elected members, the following people have a seat and a vote in the executive committee of the Styrian Raiffeisen Association:

  • the members of the Austrian Raiffeisen Association’s Advocates General, representing Styrian cooperatives
  • the president of the Styrian Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry
  • the spokesperson of the “RLB-Stmk Verbund“ cooperative
  • the chairperson of the executive committee of the Styrian Raiffeisen Bank (Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark AG)

The Association is managed by an administrative committee under the leadership of the executive director. Also the auditors, whose job it is to review the closure of accounts and the budget estimates as well as to report on the results at the general assembly, play a very important role within the Association.

At the moment, the Styrian Raiffeisen Association employs about 80 people, 30 of which work outside the office for the audit department.

The Styrian Raiffeisen Association was born in 1938, when it was separated from the monetary and audit association “Landesverband der steirischen Raiffeisenkassen und landwirtschaftlichen Genossenschaften – Steirischer Raiffeisenverband”. It was first called “Verband der südmärkischen landwirtschaftlichen Genossenschaften – Raiffeisen“, before it was renamed into “Raiffeisenverband Steiermark“ in 1943.

In 2007, after decades of being dispersed in several different locations in central Graz, the Styrian Raiffeisen Association finally moved into a new office building in Raaba-Grambach, a southern suburb of Graz. By constructing this state-of-the-art building to the latest standards of ecological and sustainable architecture, and many other exemplary projects, we have taken a pioneering role in environmental matters.

In addition to the main building, The Styrian Raiffeisen Association has a branch office at the Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark in Raaba-Grambach, which houses our education department and therefore is also where our bank employees from Raiffeisen Banks all over Styria are trained.

Members

Currently, about 300 members trust in the services of the Styrian Raiffeisen Association, among them all Styrian Raiffeisen Banks and cooperative warehouses (“Lagerhäuser”), many agro-processing cooperatives (e. g. for milk, fruit and vegetable, bioheat, or wood production), livestock farming cooperatives and unions, as well as cooperatives for the collective use of water, pastures, electricity, machinery, etc. But also many other cooperatives and organisations with different legal forms can be found among our members.