The Bank of Slovenia has given approval for the consolidation of the second-largest Slovenian bank, the New Credit Bank of Maribor (NKBM) and the twelfth-largest bank, the Postal Bank of Slovenia (PBS); the planned merger was confirmed by NKBM’s owners at a recent shareholders meeting.
NKBM's administrative board received approval from the central bank for acquisition of 55% of the voting shares in PBS capital, which is currently state-owned, and the authorization to increase NKBM's capital through investments. The government gave the green light for the aforementioned merger in late July, following lengthy negotiations. NKBM is taking this step with a view to strengthening its position on the domestic banking market and, as regards its assets, to increase its market share to13.4%, which will exceed 3.1 billion euros by the end of year 2004. Although PBS enjoys a mere 2% of the banking market, it boasts a widespread agency network, with branch offices in most of the country's post offices. The merger of the two banks initiates the forming of Slovenia's second banking pillar, which will be capable of operating on equal footing with the New Bank of Ljubljana (NLB) group, whose balance sheet total amounts to 37.3% of the Slovenian banking market.
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