Gorenjska Banka

Gorenjska Banka is a bank in Slovenia, headquartered in Kranj and established in 1996 as a self-standing credit institution.

Overview

Following a few years during which the National Bank of Yugoslavia was the only financial institution in the country, banks were established at the local level in 1955.[1] A first municipal bank in Upper Carniola was founded in Kranj on 1955/05/25. It was soon followed by other banks in Škofja Loka, Radovljica, Tržič and Bled. These were then reorganized into a joint bank which in 1972 became part of the Ljubljanska banka system. On 1989/12/27, it was transformed into a limited company in the system of the sister banks of Ljubljanska Banka. A process of separation from the Ljubljanska Banka group started in 1994 and led to Gorenjska Banka becoming an independent institution in 1996.[2] By 2011 the Sava Group, a Slovenian conglomerate, held a controlling stake of 46 percent in Gorenjska Banka.[3]

In 2015, the Bank of Slovenia determined that the Sava Group was too financially vulnerable to be an appropriate owner of the bank.[4][5] In 2016, Serbian bank AIK Banka acquired a 21 percent stake in Gorenjska Banka, and raised it to 76 percent in 2018 by buying out Sava's stake and other shareholders.[6]

Gorenjska Banka subsequently became a full subsidiary of Agri Europe Cyprus Limited (est.2011),[7] the holding entity of a privately owned conglomerate led by Serbian businessman Miodrag Kostić with activities in south-eastern Europe and Ukraine.[8] As a consequence, Gorenjska Banka became a sister company to AIK Banka, which is also controlled by Agri Europe.[9] In 2020, Agri Europe Cyprus Limited has been designated as a Significant Institution under European Banking Supervision, and therefore Gorenjska Banka has been directly supervised by the European Central Bank since 2021/01/01.[10]

See also

• NLB Group
• List of banks in Yugoslavia
• List of banks in Slovenia