With the formation of the business in 1896, the foundation was laid for Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA) as it is known today. For many decades the focus of the business was on the financing of public sector institutions, on the housing sector and on the issuing of mortgage bonds within the region of the State of Carinthia. Since 1982 HGAA has been operating as a universal bank with the core business areas of banking and leasing. At the beginning of the 1990s, Hypo Kärnten, as it was known as then, started expanding its operations successively in the region that now counts as its home market – the extended Alps-to-Adriatic region. The establishment under EU law of the first branch of an Austrian bank in Vicenza, Italy, took place in 1995 following Austria’s accession to the European Union. In the same year, one leasing company opened for business in Ljubljana in Slovenia and one in Zagreb in Croatia. With the acquisition of Auro-Banka d.d. in 2002, the bank gained entry into the market of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Just one year later, the Banking Group had a presence in Serbia and Montenegro through its own branches. From 2003 to 2007 the bank’s overall regional market expanded successively with entry into the country markets of Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary and Ukraine. HGAA today is present in 12 countries in the extended Alps-to-Adriatic region. Some 7,200 employees based out of 350 locations serve over 1.2 million customers with an extensive product portfolio.