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.
Nová banka, Myjava
Nová banka, Myjava, held its inaugural general meeting on 19 September 1909. It was established for reasons not just related to higher economic or national interests but primarily because of personal disagreements between the shareholders of an older financial institution operating in the region under the name Myjavská banka (Myjava Bank). At the heart of the dispute were conflicting opinions about a candidate for the deputy manager of the bank and planned changes in the bank’s articles of association.
The conflict reached boiling point at the general meeting of Myjavská banka on 26 February 1909, leading to a group of shareholders departing to set up a competitor, which emerged as Nová banka, Myjava. It commenced operations on 10 January 1910 with a share capital of 150,000 Austro-Hungarian crowns (K). Despite having the legal form of a joint-stock company, its narrow territorial coverage and the nature of its activities were closer to that of a small cooperative. The bank’s operations were overseen by a board of directors, a 30-member committee, a control committee and a staff consisting of the treasurer and the accountant. The highest body was the general meeting, in which every shareholder had voting rights according to the number of shares they subscribed and paid for. The bank performed reasonably well considering the strong competition from two older financial institutions (Myjavská sporiteľňa and Myjavská banka) and its limited area of operation.
According to the first balance sheet for business year 1910, the bank made a net profit of K 7,725, with deposits of nearly K 350,000 and approximately the same amount in promissory note loans. The bank’s business grew in the following years and it thus strengthened its position in the local money market. Most loans were secured by promissory notes and even in times when “money was expensive”, the bank charged interest rates of 5% to 7%.
The bank financed its activities mainly from deposits on savings books and current accounts, but also traded in real estate and securities. Although the articles of association set the aim of supporting the development of industry, the bank’s low capital potential made it difficult to penetrate this sector. It invested mainly in the establishment and development of local cooperatives. In 1911 it was the driving force for the creation of the Myjava-Brestovec Small Farmers’ Dairy, a company at Brestovec, and in 1920 it became one of the locations where shares could be subscribed for Slovenská podnikateľská účastinná spoločnosť (Slovak enterprise joint-stock company) in Myjava.
On the other hand, the fact that only a small part of its resources were tied up in larger investments meant that it had significantly more flexibility and the bank was able to grow even in the pre-war economic crisis of 1912 – 1913. It even avoided burdens from the war economy and it entered the newly established Czechoslovak Republic on firm foundations. At that time it was managing deposits with a total value of just over K 2.8 million and it had liquid assets on accounts in financial institutions of up to K 2.2 million. To achieve a more realistic ratio between the bank’s own funds and deposits and deal with the loss of value of money, the bank began gradually increasing the share capital, first to 300,000 Czechoslovak crowns (Kč) and in 1920 to Kč 600,000. After the involvement of American Slovaks in the last issue of shares resulted in the subscription of a larger number than were offered, the bank considered raising the share capital again to Kč 1 million, but in the end that did not happen.
Its plans were interrupted when it was caught in the wave of takeovers sweeping the banking sector. At the end of 1920, it concluded an agreement with Hospodárska banka, Bratislava, on terms for a merger under which it would transfer all its assets and liabilities to that institution. It became a branch of Hospodárska banka.
Only a fraction of the bank’s documentation has been preserved in the archival fonds and it is written mainly in Hungarian. It can contribute to research on banking in the Myjava region of Slovakia in the times of Austro-Hungary and the first Czechoslovak Republic. The fonds can also be of value to research on economic development in Myjava and the emergence there of national-bourgeois tendencies. An inventory was made in the corporate archive of Štátna banka československá in 1966 and this was corrected and revised in 2015 in the Archives of Národná banka Slovenska at 8 Cukrová Street in Bratislava, where the fonds is now kept.
Last updated: Friday, December 29, 2023