CITY OF PULA, ISTRA COUNTY TO START PROCEEDINGS OVER HNB DECISION

PULA, March 29 (Hina) - City of Pula and Istria County authorities will initiate judicial proceedings to revoke a Croatian National Bank (HNB) decision on the appointment of a temporary trustee for Istarska Bank. The authorities believe the decision is illegal. City and county leaders, Istria's businessmen and chief depositors in Istarska Bank, including many of the bank's stockholders, today convened for a meeting and agreed to call for Monday an extraordinary session of the bank's assembly, Pula mayor Giancarlo Zupic told reporters. County businessmen will wait for an outcome of tomorrow's government session, which will tackle the Istarska Bank issue. They agreed not to open new accounts in other banks in order to help the bank, Zupic said. The HNB last week appointed a temporary trustee for Istarska Bank after establishing that the bank's potential losses exceeded liable capital. The trustee blocked all payments on Friday. The decision met with major disapproval in Istria, whose representatives claim that if the state paid its debts, only a minor intervention loan would suffice to make the bank solvent. (hina) ha jn