Živnostenská banka
Encyclopedia
Živnostenská banka was a major commercial bank
operating in the Czech Republic
. Since 2002 it has been a member of the Italian UniCredit Group
. In 2007 was affiliated with HVB Bank and new bank was named UniCredit Bank Czech Republic.
Commercial bank
After the implementation of the Glass–Steagall Act, the U.S. Congress required that banks engage only in banking activities, whereas investment banks were limited to capital market activities. As the two no longer have to be under separate ownership under U.S...
operating in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. Since 2002 it has been a member of the Italian UniCredit Group
UniCredit
UniCredit SpA is an Italy-based, pan-European banking organization, with aprox 40 million customers and operations in 22 countries.- Geography :...
. In 2007 was affiliated with HVB Bank and new bank was named UniCredit Bank Czech Republic.
History
- 1868 - Živnostenská banka (ZIBA) was established as a joint stock company focusing on the financing of Czech small and medium–sized enterprises (SMEs). It was the first bank in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be financed entirely by Czech capital, and had as its aim supporting the development of newly established Czech businesses. The bank also sought the deposits of small savers: tradesmen and owners of small Czech companies. ZIBA became the umbrella organization of a network of small Czech savings and loan associations. Prior to World War I (World War I), ZIBA took a minority holding in SerbiaSerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n Credit Bank. Just before the outbreak of World War I, ZIBA had 1,068 employees, 11 branches in BohemiaBohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
and MoraviaMoraviaMoravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
, and branches in ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Cracow, LvivLvivLviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, and TriesteTriesteTrieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
. At that time ZIBA alone accounted for almost a third of the total capital of the Czech banking system. - 1918 - After the formation of the Czechoslovak RepublicCzechoslovak RepublicCzechoslovak Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia between 1918 and 1938 and between 1945 and 1960. See*First Czechoslovak Republic*Second Czechoslovak Republic...
in 1918, ZIBA grew rapidly because of its role as the new state's key bank. - 1920 - The Nostrification Law forced joint-stock companies to transfer their head offices to the territory of the new state where they had their factories and plants. This law created favorable conditions for Czech banks. ZIBA benefited enormously as it changed its strategy to one of providing loans to large industrial companies.
- 1922 - ZIBA established a branch in London. The bank fostered mergers among large Czech industrial corporations (for example the creation of the mechanical engineering colossus CKD) and systematically built up its industrial empire. As the strongest bank in prewar CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, ZIBA controlled 60 companies, including the largest in the country. It also developed links with French and British financial institutions. - 1938 - ZIBA had become a major financial actor in CentralCentral EuropeCentral Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Eastern EuropeEastern EuropeEastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. On March 13, Germany annexed Austria. The Germans established Länderbank Wien by merging the Dresdner BankDresdner BankDresdner Bank AG was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009.- 19th century :...
- owned Merkurbank in Vienna, the Austrian business of the Zentral-Europäische Länderbank of Paris, and ZIBA's branch in Vienna. On September 29, as a result of the Munich AgreementMunich AgreementThe Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
, Czechoslovakia had to hand over the SudetenlandSudetenlandSudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
region to the German Reich. Dresdner Bank took over ZIBA's LiberecLiberecLiberec is a city in the Czech Republic. Located on the Lusatian Neisse and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge, it is the fifth-largest city in the Czech Republic....
, Ústí nad LabemÚstí nad LabemÚstí nad Labem is a city of the Czech Republic, in the Ústí nad Labem Region. The city is the 7th-most populous in the country.Ústí is situated in a mountainous district at the confluence of the Bílina and the Elbe Rivers, and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway junction...
, Karlovy VaryKarlovy VaryKarlovy Vary is a spa city situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague . It is named after King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370...
and TepliceTepliceTeplice , Teplice-Šanov until 1948 is a town in the Czech Republic, the capital of the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region. It is the state's second largest spa town ....
branches. - That same year Anglo-Czechoslovak and Prague Credit Bank established an office in New York. Next year, the bank changed its name to Anglo Prague Credit Bank.
- World War II - ZIBA escaped direct annexation by a German bank, the only Czech bank to do so. Even so, it was forced to accept German control and to contribute heavily to German war financing. It purchased almost a billion crowns' worth of Reich treasury bills, a sum about three times the ZIBA's capital stock. Under German occupation, ZIBA tried more or less successfully, to protect the interests of Czech industry.
- 1945 - The Czechoslovak government nationalized ZIBA, together with all other Czech banks.
- 1948 - ZIBA absorbed Prague Credit Bank, the former Anglo-Prague Bank, and with it PCB's New York office.
- 1949 - ZIBA closed the New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
office. - 1950-6 - ZIBA continued to exist as a legal entity but the government severely restricted its activities.
- 1956-88 - ZIBA's international and foreign exchange experience led the government to make it the primary Czechoslovak bank for ComeconComeconThe Council for Mutual Economic Assistance , 1949–1991, was an economic organisation under hegemony of Soviet Union comprising the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world...
import and export business, in which its London branch played a significant role. ZIBA wais the repository for all foreign currency accountForeign currency accountForeign Currency Account is a transactional account denominated in a currency other than the home currency and can be maintained by a bank in the home country or a bank in another country ....
s maintained by expatriates, foreign firms operating in Czechoslovakia, and state agencies facilitating "invisible" trade such as tourism. - 1988 - ZIBA returned to corporate business.
- 1992 - ZIBA was the first bank in Central and Eastern Europe to be privatized. Germany's BHF-BANK took up 40% of the shares, the IFCInternational Finance CorporationThe International Finance Corporation promotes sustainable private sector investment in developing countries.IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States....
acquired 12%, and the remaining 48% went to private individuals and Czech investment funds. - 1998 - Bankgesellschaft BerlinBankgesellschaft BerlinLandesbank Berlin Holding is a large commercial bank based in Berlin and holding company of the following banks: Berliner Sparkasse and Landesbank Berlin....
became the largest shareholder in ZIBA after taking over BHF-BANK's now 47% equity stake. Other significant shareholders were the IFC and Crédit Commercial de FranceCrédit Commercial de FranceCrédit Commercial de France was a commercial bank in France, headquartered in Paris, avenue des Champs-Élysées. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC in April 2000, and was renamed HSBC France on 1 November 2005....
. - 2000 - Bankgesellschaft Berlin increased its stake in ZIBA to 85.16%. At this time, the bank had branches in PraguePraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, BrnoBrnoBrno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
, České BudějoviceCeské BudejoviceČeské Budějovice is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the largest city in the South Bohemian Region and is the political and commercial capital of the region and centre of the Roman Catholic Diocese of České Budějovice and of the University of South Bohemia and the Academy of Sciences...
, Karlovy VaryKarlovy VaryKarlovy Vary is a spa city situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague . It is named after King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370...
, LiberecLiberecLiberec is a city in the Czech Republic. Located on the Lusatian Neisse and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge, it is the fifth-largest city in the Czech Republic....
, OstravaOstravaOstrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
, PardubicePardubicePardubice is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the river Elbe, 65 miles east of Prague. Pardubice has an antique centre square and old town, with many restaurants that stay open until late in the evening. There is an old Tower and a recently renovated Castle...
and ZlínZlínZlín , from 1949 to 1989 Gottwaldov , is a city in the Zlín Region, southeastern Moravia, Czech Republic, on the Dřevnice River. The development of the modern city is closely connected to the Bata Shoes company...
. It also had a representative office in BratislavaBratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
to handle operations in the SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. - 2002 - UniCredito Italiano acquired Bankgesellschaft Berlin's stake and launched a tender offer for all the remaining shares.