LJUBLJANA, Feb 7 (Hina) - A legal representative who has sued Slovenia's Ljubljanska Banka before a Trieste, Italy court on behalf of 175 Croatian depositors for EUR1.65 million said on Thursday the lawsuit was irrefutable from both a
legal and banking point of view. Talking to reporters in front of the bank's administrative building in the Slovene capital, Bozidar Vukasovic said the chief problem in the decade-long failure to settle the Croatian depositors' claims from Ljubljanska Banka was a 1994 Slovene constitutional law which established Nova Ljubljanska Banka. The latter took over the assets of the former bank but not the obligations towards Croatian depositors. This, according to Vukasovic, is a violation of the law on binding relations. Another obstacle to the settlement of the issue has been Slovenia's policy, he said, adding the matter was stopped at the constitutional court. Vukasovic announ
LJUBLJANA, Feb 7 (Hina) - A legal representative who has sued
Slovenia's Ljubljanska Banka before a Trieste, Italy court on
behalf of 175 Croatian depositors for EUR1.65 million said on
Thursday the lawsuit was irrefutable from both a legal and banking
point of view.
Talking to reporters in front of the bank's administrative building
in the Slovene capital, Bozidar Vukasovic said the chief problem in
the decade-long failure to settle the Croatian depositors' claims
from Ljubljanska Banka was a 1994 Slovene constitutional law which
established Nova Ljubljanska Banka. The latter took over the assets
of the former bank but not the obligations towards Croatian
depositors. This, according to Vukasovic, is a violation of the law
on binding relations.
Another obstacle to the settlement of the issue has been Slovenia's
policy, he said, adding the matter was stopped at the
constitutional court.
Vukasovic announced the Trieste main hearing began on March 4.
He said the lawsuit referred to only 175 Croatian depositors but was
only the beginning of his actions to unfreeze the deposits which
Croats failed to transfer to domestic banks after the break-up of
the ex-Yugoslavia.
Vukasovic said that if the settlement of the issue continued to be
as slow as in the past the total debt to Croatian depositors, with
accrued interest, could reach US$2 billion, in which case
Ljubljanska Banka could not be sold for more than US$200 million. He
reiterated that the Belgian bank KBC, which wants to enter Nova
Ljubljanska Banka, had requested Slovenia to guarantee that it
would settle long-standing debts by itself.
(hina) ha