FRANKFURT (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 7, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the ratings on Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI; A/Negative/A-1) and Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG (RZB; A/Negative/A-1) are unaffected by the announced acquisition of Poland-based Polbank EFG (not rated). We consider the acquisition to be in line with Raiffeisen Banking Group's (RBG; not rated) strategy to solidify its presence in Central and Eastern Europe. Although we believe a strengthened market position in Poland is a positive development, we are concerned that the acquisition will reverse the moderate improvement in RBG's and RZB's capitalization, which occurred in 2010 as a result of retained earnings. In our view, the group's capital remains a weakness and we could lower the
