The ' (, lit. 'Austrian Central Bank', abbr. ') is the national central bank for Austria within the Eurosystem.
The bank doesn't use the name Austrian National Bank in English, it uses its German name Oesterreichische Nationalbank in its English communications. The Austrian National Bank started operations on 1923/01/01 as central bank of the newly formed First Austrian Republic, under the economic assistance provided to Austria by the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations. It thus succeeded the Austro-Hungarian Bank on Austrian territory, with its name recalling that of the Austro-Hungarian Bank's predecessor entity founded in 1816. It was liquidated following the Anschluss in March 1938, and re-established in July 1945. From 1923 to 1938 and again from 1945 to 1998, it issued the Austrian schilling.
It is an Aktiengesellschaft governed by special legislative provision, fully owned by the Austrian federal government since May 2010 with shareholder rights exercised by the Minister of Finance.[2] Before 2010, half of the capital was in the hands of employer and employee organizations as well as banks and insurance corporations.
The Austrian National Bank is not itself a financial supervisory authority but participates in European banking supervision as a member of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank, alongside the Financial Market Authority.[3]