BRE Bank to keep mBank, to buy Bank Czestochowa

mBank will not debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), while its parent company BRE Bank will totally rework its development strategy and transform itself from an investment to a universal bank. The Warsaw-based bank has announced plans to take over Bank Czestochowa (BCz) where BCz will swap its assets for BRE shares. "This means that neither mBank nor MultiBank will debut on the floor," said an anonymous informer. In February BRE Bank president Wojciech Kostrzewa told Puls Biznesu that mBank might make it to the WSE in the fourth quarter. But in an August interview he revealed that this date would be moved to the first quarter of 2003. "mbank's debut was to be accompanied by selling a large stake of its shares to an investor. However, BRE Bank has been forced to limit its investment activities and is looking for alternative sources of capital. E-banking might be a solution to BRE's problems and is now reluctant to exclude mBank from its structure," claimed the informer. There has also been unconfirmed reports that BRE Bank might take over Fortis Bank. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 4) M.M.