The story
The bank developed in the course of the 17th century from the trading business of the long-established Linz ship master family Scheibenpogen. Therefore, the bank has been in existence since about 1650. In the 19th century it went to the Eidam (son-in-law) of the former mayor of Linz, Johann Michael Scheibenpogen (II), Josef Planck, and was called J. M. Scheibenpogens Eidam. Josef Planck's 1844 descendants, Planck von Planckburg, transformed the private bank into a public limited company in 1869, the "Bank für Oberösterreich und Salzburg".
In the 1930s the three regional banks Bank für Oberösterreich und Salzburg (now Oberbank), Bank für Kärnten AG (now BKS Bank AG) and Bank für Tirol und Vorarlberg Aktiengesellschaft (BTV) were taken over by Creditanstalt (CA) in Vienna. In 1933, CA acquired a majority stake in Oberbank by issuing new shares.
In 1952, one third each of CA's shares were transferred to the three banks Oberbank, Bank für Kärnten und Steiermark and Bank für Tirol und Vorarlberg. Due to their common history and similar corporate cultures, the originally capital-based interdependence of Oberbank, BKS and BTV has developed into a close and particularly friendly cooperation that has been expressed since 1997 in a joint appearance as the 3-Banken-Gruppe.
The IPO of Oberbank, BKS and BTV on 1 July 1986 was the most important step towards securing independence. A large number of shareholders were a prerequisite for the banks to be able to permanently detach themselves from CA's influence and pursue an independent strategy.
From Wikipedia’s article on Oberbank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5