PiS calls for halt to bank merger, saying move will hit both Poles and Poland

The move was announced following the global merger between the two banks' strategic investors - Unicredito Italiano and Germany's HVB. "Following the merger a financial group will be created which will control 38% of assets in Investment Funds (TFI), 25% of the deposit market and 35% of the mortgage credits market. This will neither serve the Polish economy, nor customers, well. A too-large capital concentration is going to take place, while in our country the competition between banks is still quite poor," said Wojciech Jasiński of PiS. He went on to add that the bank plans to lay off 10,000 people, out of which 6,000 will be in Central and Eastern Europe. "Because our banks are the largest, as many as 5,000 people can lose their jobs," added Jasiński. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7; Parkiet, p. 3) A.K.