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WARSAW, Dec 25 (AFP): Poland intervened Saturday to stop the merger of two of the country's private banks which would have created the country's largest, ahead of the state-owned bank.
It ruled out a merger between subsidiaries of an Italian and a German bank, and called on the Italians to sell their shares in the German would-be partner.
"The treasury ministry is opposed to the merger of Pekao SA, subsidiary of the Italian UniCredito, and BPH, subsidiary of the German HypoVereinsbank HVB," Treasury Minister Andrzej Mikosz said, quoted by the daily Rzeczpospolita.
"The government of the Republic of Poland considers the purchase of BPH by UniCredito as bad for the Polish financial market."
In October the European Commission allowed UniCredito to buy HVB, creating the 12-nation eurozone's biggest bank with 7,000 branches, and the biggest in Eastern Europe.
Miksoz called on UniCredito to sell its shares in BPH within a month.
He said that under the terms of the privatisation of Pekao SA, UniCredito did not have the right to buy other Polish banks without ministerial authorisation.
He said UniCredito has never sought such authorisation, though after the merger with HVB it now owned 71 per cent of BPH.
Pekao SA is the second biggest bank in Poland after the state-owned PKO BP and BPH the third. A merger would have produced the country's biggest bank.
Alone in the European Union, Poland opposes the introduction of common rules governing bank mergers.
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