VIENNA, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Austrian opposition party Neos wants the European Union to investigate whether UniCredit’s Bank Austria unit would be benefitting from illegal state aid if it was allowed to shift thousands of employees into the state pension system. Austria is considering a change in law to allow the lender to transfer 3,300 workers from its own private pension system into the public one, which Neos says would shift the bill from the bank to taxpayers. “We (suspect) that this results in illegal state aid,” Gerald Loacker, vice chairman of Neos’ parliamentary group, said. Neos, a liberal party, which first run for elections in 2013, holds 5 percent of the seats in Austria’s parliament. It ran on a platform accusing the ruling coalition of failing to implement necessary reforms. Bank Austria wants to cut costs by restructuring its retail operations; the pension shift is part of the plan. (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Mark Potter)
Austrian Opposition party Neos has called on the EU to investigate whether UniCredit's Bank Austria unit would be benefitting from illegal state aid if it was allowed to shift thousands of employees into the state pension system. Neos argues that with Austria considering changing a law to allow the bank to transfer 3,300 workers from its own private pension system to a public one would shift the bill from the bank to taxpayers. Bank Austria is looking to cut costs by restructuring its retail operations, and this pension shift is part of this strategy.