On June 30, 2023, Petrus Advisers announced that it has sent a letter to Bawag Group AG and raised questions about its deposit base, US real estate exposure and loans to management. Petrus stated in a presentation that the Bank?s franchise is ?degrading? and the lender has lost retail deposit market share, pushing up the ratio of loans to deposits.

Petrus argued that the lender is replacing deposits with wholesale funding and is acting more like a credit hedge fund by increasing its commercial real estate loans in the US and buying structured credit portfolios. The firm also criticized pay for Chief Executive Officer Anas Abuzaakouk as too high, and questioned loans to management that Petrus said had reached ?36 million. Petrus stated that the Bank has erased all revenue generating business units and relies almost exclusively on brokers and third-party vendors for the structure and growth of its balance sheet and expressed that the Bank needs an intervention from the regulator and should not be allowed to distribute capital until the franchise has stabilized with necessary leadership changes.