Commercial Union to begin banking operations next year

Commercial Union (CU) is preparing to set up a bank in Poland. The CU group, already Poland's number one pension fund and the second biggest provider of life insurance, will be offering banking services through its agents as earl y as next year. Apart from confirming the plan to establish the bank, compan y representatives declined to give any details. "It will be possible to say more on the issue in the late spring," CU group head in Poland, Jaroslaw Myj ak, said. The CU plan to set up a bank dates back at least a year. In Octobe r 2000 the group was close to creating a banking network jointly with Societ e Generale. But the plan fell through due to deteriorating relations between the two companies. (Puls Biznesu, p. 10) M.T.