Bank Przemyslowy under KNB caretaker management

The Central Bank announced yesterday that the Banking Supervisory Commission (KNB) has appointed a caretaker management at small domestic lender Bank Przemyslowy to facilitate its restructuring and find a new investor. It is one of the country's smallest lenders with total assets of $215 million, and is mostly owned by the troubled Union Group of the Czech Republic. Union Group's other subsidiary, Union Banka, based in Ostrava in the Czech Republic, was forced to close its branches last month amid a liquidity crisis while the Czech central bank threatened to take away its operating license. Lodz-based Przemyslowy had planned to raise fresh capital through a share issue but its owners did not acquire the new stock by the March 15 deadline. "The decision was made to secure the funds gathered in the bank's accounts," said KNB. The institution obliged the new management to start negotiations on the bank's future strategy with domestic investor Kulczyk Holding. (Reuters; Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 7) M.M.