ECB's Nowotny says expects Austria to resolve Heta crisis

BERLIN: European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said on Thursday he expected Austria to resolve a crisis surrounding the "bad bank" Heta Asset Resolution.

Nowotny told Reuters he expected Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling to get the support of a necessary majority of creditors for a settlement offer related to Austria's worst financial disaster in 60 years.

"It's going in the right direction," Nowotny told Reuters before an event hosted by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung foundation.

"I think Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling will get the needed majority. It's like a band-wagon effect."

Schelling last month said that he expected a two-thirds majority of creditors to accept a settlement that will make a bond buyback offer binding for all creditors.

Creditors have until Oct. 7 to respond, with answers expected to be made public on Oct. 10.