This is the position of the central bank's leadership which will be sent to the HNB Council that is expected to discuss the motion of the Unicredito which is a majority owner of the Zagrebacka Bank, for the merger of the Zagrebacka and HVB Splitska banks on the Croatian market.
Until a final decision of the HNB Council, the central bank today decided to impose a temporary ban on possible plans by Unicredito and linked persons to conclude any contracts with the HVB Splitska Bank or to take any action which might lead to the change of assets, capital and operations.
The proposal for the merger came after the biggest Italian bank Unicredito and the second biggest German bank HypoVereinsbank (HVB) agreed on the merger on the global level in mid-June, planning to establish the ninth biggest bank in Europe according to market capitalisation.
On 2 September, Unicredito sent a request to the HNB for taking over qualified shares in the HVB Splitska Bank and Wuestenrot building society. At the same time the Croatian central bank was informed of plans for the concentration of banks, i.e ZABA (Zagrebacka Bank) and the HVB Splitska bank.
Rohatinski explains that this move would lead to a group which would have a share in the banking market twofold higher than the second biggest bank in Croatia, namely Privredna Bank.
Therefore the HNB leadership is against such a merger.
The central bank also states that in case the Unicredito bank decides to sell the HVB Splitska Bank, the HNB would insist on its sale to banks which are not among the top six banks in Croatia.