Austria's Bank Medici says has Madoff exposure

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's Bank Medici, a closely held bank serving wealthy clients and institutional investors, said on Tuesday it held products affected by the alleged $50 billion Madoff fraud, but was not at risk in case of a loss.

"With regards to the Madoff fraud case, the bank is itself invested, but is not at risk in any way due to its solid capital situation," the bank said in a statement.

Board member Peter Scheithauer declined to say how big the exposure was.

Bank Medici said that two funds for which it acts as global distributor -- Herald USA Fund and Herald Luxemburg Fund with a total volume of $2.1 billion (1.4 billion pounds) -- were also exposed to the Madoff scam, although it could not to what extent.

It said that 93 percent of the funds had been bought by international investors, the rest by Austrians. It added that there were redemptions from those funds as recently as in October.

UniCredit's Bank Austria owns 25 percent of Bank Medici. The rest belongs to Bank Medici Chairwoman Sonja Kohn, a banker who has worked in the hedge fund scene since 1987, according to Bank Medici's website.

(Reporting by Eva Komarek and Boris Groendahl; Editing by David Cowell)