Regional banks squeeze coop banks out of restructuring

Six regional banks have decided to create one, inter-regional associating bank. Two other regional banks from Poznan and Koszalin will create an associating group and the third group will be created around bank Bank Gospodarki Zywnosciowej (BGZ). This last option means that the plan to privatize BGZ by cooperative banks will cease to exist. "Cooperative banks are too poor to take part in the privatization of BGZ," said the president of one of the regional banks Roman Wenerski. Inter-regional associating bank cooperatives will place seventeenth among the biggest banks in Poland according to deposits and twentieth according to capital. Together with associated cooperative banks it will find itself among the top 10 banks in Poland with a network of over 1,700 branches. The new bank will be located in Warsaw and the financial centre of this organization will become Wroclaw. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 1, 14, Puls Biznesu, page 1, 6) M.M.