A consortium led by Cerberus Capital Management, a distressed debt specialist, has paid €2.6bn ($3.4bn) for Bawag, the Austrian bank involved in the accounting scandal that crippled US futures broker Refco last year.

The head of the trade union which owns Austria's fourth-largest bank said it was sold to the Cerberus consortium because it included local mortgage bank Wüstenrot, insurer Generali's Austrian arm and Hannes Androsch, a former Austrian finance minister, according to Dow Jones. Cerberus was unavailable for comment.