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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.
Liptovská úverná banka, Liptovský Mikuláš
The oldest legal predecessor of Liptovská úverná banka (Liptov Credit Bank) was the Liptov Mutual Help (Liptauer Wechselseitiger Aushilfsverein), which was founded by physician Fridrich Ullmann and pharmacist Ľudovít Ballo in December 1866. The association brought together tradesmen and merchants in the town of Liptovský Mikuláš. In 1870 it was reorganised as a joint-stock company called the Liptovský Mikuláš Savings Bank (officially referred to in German as the Liptó Szent Mikloser Sparkassa or in Hungarian as Liptó Szentmiklósi takarékpénztár). By providing loans to the small and medium-sized enterprises of tradesmen and manufacturers, it contributed to industrial development in the Liptov region. It did business with the largest factories in the region. The first of its active managers, Lajos Ballo, Hermann Stark, Samuel Haas and Fridrich Ullmann, came exclusively from non-Slovak backgrounds but the ranks of management and shareholders gradually came to include Slovak factory owners (the Lackos, Žuffas and Hubkas) and members of the Slovak intelligentsia such as the parliamentarian and lawyer Ján Ružiak, or Mikuláš Pružinský, who would go on to become minister of finance in the Slovak state.
The successful development of the savings bank was only disrupted by the First World War, during which it was unable to avoid subscribing to war loans or contributing a part of its profits to so-called “military welfare”. A long period of stagnation in trade and industry led to cutbacks in production, lower earnings and therefore also lower savings. After the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic, a new challenge came in the form of fierce competition from much more advanced Czech industry and capital. Under Act No 302/1920 of 14 April 1920, the bank could no longer call itself a “sporiteľňa” (savings bank) and became Liptovská úverná banka (Liptov Credit Bank). Its share capital at that time amounted to 3 million Czechoslovak crowns (Kč). In 1926 the share capital was raised to Kč 3.5 million. In 1930 the bank concluded an affiliation agreement with Dunajská banka, Bratislava, which owned the majority of its shares.
After the establishment of the Slovak state in 1939, the liquidation of Liptovská úverná banka was ordered as part of the consolidation of Slovak banking. Sedliacka banka, Bratislava, was authorised to manage the liquidation. It made Liptovská úverná banka its branch from 1 January 1942. This situation continued until 1948, when Sedliacka banka and its branches were integrated into Slovenská banka, which shortly thereafter merged with Tatra banka to make Slovenská Tatra banka, Bratislava. The final remnants of Liptovská úverná banka in Liptovský Mikuláš came to an end in 1950 when it was merged into Slovenská všeobecná úverná banka, Bratislava, and it was deleted from the commercial register.
Most of its preserved documents are account books from the latter part of the bank’s existence. The fonds also includes incomplete minutes from meetings of the board of directors, annual reports and records from the liquidation of Sedliacka banka.
The bank’s archival documents were initially kept in the corporate archive of Štátna banka československá in Ružomberok, where they were sorted in 1968 and a temporary inventory was made. They were relocated to the Archives of Národná banka Slovenska in Bratislava in 1993. The temporary inventory dating from 1968 was revised at the Archives of Národná banka Slovenska in 2016.
Last updated: Friday, December 29, 2023