Merger of BPH and PBK banks will cost 4,000 jobs

The merger of BPH and PBK, which will create Poland's third largest bank, wi ll result in a staff reduction of some 25%-30%, BPH president Joseph Wancer said on Friday. This means that over the next two years, some 4,000 employee s of BPH and PBK will lose their jobs. The consolidation is a result of a me rger between the two banks' parent companies, namely Germany's Hypo Vereinsb ank and Bank Austria Creditanstalt, which created HVB Bank. Registration of the BPH-PBK deal is scheduled for December, while the stock exchange listing of shares in the merged bank will begin in January 2002. The BPH management expects to save up to euro 70 million annually as a result of the merger. HV B has big plans for its Central and Eastern European operations, since it be lieves the region has great potential. By the year 2005, HVB plans to double its assets in the region to euro 40 billion and hopes that these assets will generate half of the profits of the entire group. (Gazeta Wyborcza, Oct. 13- 14, p. 31) T.J.