The NBS Archives are open to the public at the following times:
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
9 a.m. to 12 noon /
12:45 p.m. to 3 p.m.
In July, August and September the Archives are closed to the public.
The Archives will be closed on 18 and 25 February 2025.
Gemerská ľudová a priemyselná banka, Rimavská Sobota
Gemerská ľudová a priemyselná banka (Gemer People’s and Industrial Bank) in Rimavská Sobota was established in 1870 with a share capital of 30,000 guldens, which was gradually increased to 150,000 guldens in 1899. The aim of the founders was to serve a clientele that was overlooked by the Savings Bank of Rimavská Sobota founded in 1861, especially small trade workers, merchants, farmers and landowners. The first chairman of the board was Gustáv Czibor, the director Karol Szemerly and the treasurer Jozef Tóth. In its first stage, the bank made a net profit of 5 to 7 thousand guldens a year but used these to raise its share capital rather than pay out dividends to shareholders. It was only in 1874 that the bank began paying out regular dividends of 4 to 5 guldens per share.
After the changeover to the gold-backed crown currency, the bank’s share capital was valued at 300,000 Austro-Hungarian crowns (K), which increased to K 640,000 in 1918. The bank prospered, regularly paying dividends ranging from K 10 to K 22 and it had its highest ever net profit (K 127,000) in 1918.
The bank experienced rapid growth during the First World War, with deposits on savings books and current accounts rising to K 8 million. Unfortunately, the bank was over-exposed to war loans, subscribing over K 4 million together with its clients. After the foundation of Czechoslovakia, problems with exercising rights to securities and claims frozen in Hungary caused the bank to become insolvent and in 1922 a moratorium was authorised. As the situation did not improve, the general meeting proposed liquidating the institution in 1923. The company’s silent liquidation was completed in 1944.
Only a small part of the documentation of the Gemer People’s and Industrial Bank has been preserved. Most documents are in Hungarian but they can be used to study the history of this local credit institution at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The archival documents were initially kept in the corporate archives of Štátna banka československá (State Bank of Czechoslovakia) in Ružomberok, where they were put in order and a temporary inventory was made. In 1995, the fonds was transferred to the archives of Národná banka Slovenska in Bratislava, where the old inventory (1968) was revised.
Last updated: Monday, November 11, 2024