As banks from predominantly western Europe further increase their dominant role in the region, our listing this year is headed by two banks that have retained their independence, the expansionist National Savings and Commercial Bank (OTP Bank) from Hungary and Poland’s majority state-owned PKO Bank Polski.
OTP Bank’s acquisitions in the first part of this year were covered in the August issue of The Banker (p14) but it has since announced an agreement to acquire Crnogorska Komercijalna Bank in Montenegro and is considering taking over Bulgaria’s DZI Bank. It also remains one of the final two contenders to acquire the Romanian Savings Bank (at 53 in the current listing) in the last major act in the privatisation of the Romanian banking sector, but has ruled itself out of the tender process for the sale of BAWAG PSK in Austria.
