Senior Minister slams idea of PZU-PKO BP tie up

"Merging PZU and PKO BP is not a good idea," said Economy and Labor Minister Jerzy Hausner in reaction to the latest idea to form a giant banking-insurance consortium mooted by bank PKO BP president Jerzy Podsiadło and the head of insurance giant PZU Cezary Stypułkowski. "Creating national monopolies in economically unjustified. That's why the idea of the [merger] is not sensible," said Hausner in an interview for Parkiet. Both Podsiadło and Stypułkowski are strongly supporting the idea, as they point to other national giants like ING, Nationale Nederlanden or Italian Generali. Podsiadło dismissed the idea that merging PKO BP and PZU would create a monopoly, and instead he argued the move would prepare the group to face the tough competition on the EU market. (Parkiet, June 14-16, p. 5) J.K.