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Novomestská úverná banka, Nové Mesto nad Váhom
Novomestská úverná banka (Credit Bank of Nové Mesto nad Váhom) was established at its inaugural general meeting on 6 July 1890. Its official names in Hungarian and German recorded in the Companies Register were Vágujhelyi hitelbank, részvénytársaság, and Vagujhelyer Credit-bank, Aktiengesellschaft. It had its registered office at 71 Masaryk Square in Nové mesto nad Váhom.
The initial shareholders were merchants, landowners, lawyers, doctors and industrialists. The management comprised the general director Mór Herzfeld, his deputy Ferencz Halaczy and directors Ede Dónáth, Jakub Herzog, Karol Vilmos Kellermann, Vilmos Lanyi and Armin Löwinger amongst others. The members of the supervisory board were Lipót Füredi, Zsiga Herzeg and Bernát Kraus. The chief accountant was Arnold Wister with Sándor Wister as assistant accountant and the treasurer was Henrik Einhora. The company’s bodies were the general meeting, the board of directors and the supervisory board.
The bank’s main business activities were the discounting and rediscounting of promissory notes and commercial papers, the authorisation of debt security loans, discounting of merchants’ accounts, provision of advances for securities with the exception of shares in the institution itself, purchase and sale of domestic and foreign securities, enforcement of various claims and the commercial representation of other institutions and private persons on commission, acceptance of money, bills and securities on a current account, acceptance of money on savings books, provision of mortgage loans entered in the land register and the purchase of mortgage bonds, the purchase and sale of real estate, the establishment of industrial enterprises, their acquisition, their management and the holding of shares therein.
The initial share capital was 30,000 guldens in the form of 1,500 registered shares with a nominal value of 20 guldens. The bank raised its share capital to 40,000 guldens in 1893 and to 100,000 guldens in 1897. On expiry of the eight-year transition period for the changeover to the gold-backed crown currency that began in 1892, the bank converted the value of all its assets at the rate of 1 gulden = 2 crowns from 1 January 1900. The share capital was thus converted from 100,000 guldens to 200,000 Austro-Hungarian crowns (K). On 19 November 1911, the share capital was increased to K 300,000.
After the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic, a temporary management consisting of Lipót Tauber as general director, Karol Háas as chief accountant and Jakub Burger as treasurer was formed. After the stabilisation of the situation in 1924, government commissioner Štefan Schurman was appointed to the management of the bank. Alexander Neubauer led the management as chairman of the board of directors. Other senior managers included Jakub Fuchs and Max Herzog. The members of the supervisory board were Július Fuchs, Bedrich Roth and Ludevít Tauber. Karol Háas was the chief accountant and Jakub Burger was the treasurer. The new management had great success in recruiting new clients. The bank raised its share capital to 600,000 Czechoslovak crowns (Kč) in 1925. In 1926 the management changed again: Viliam Kolich became the government commissioner, Fridrich Pongrácz became chairman of the board of directors, Alexander Neubauer became the chief executive with Zoltán Koronthály as his deputy; Karol Háas and Jakub Burger continued as accountant and treasurer respectively.
In providing financial assistance and issuing shares, the bank had ties with Úverná banka (Credit Bank) in Žilina and later with the Bratislava branch of Moravská banka (Moravian Bank) in Brno. In 1930 the company’s share capital reached Kč 1 million, with the majority owner being Dunajská banka (Danube Bank) in Bratislava. On 30 March 1930, the bank adopted new articles of association at an ordinary general meeting. In 1933 the bank made a profit of Kč 35,567; its total assets amounted to Kč 5,519,861. In 1936 assets had grown to Kč 5,948,118. The uncertain political situation in 1938 led to a decrease in the bank’s activities. At the start of 1938, it had total assets of Kč 4.6 million and they fell to Kč 3.8 million by the end of the year.
On 29 June 1939, an extraordinary general meeting of the bank elected a board of directors consisting of chairman Oskar Waler and other members Augustín Sasák, Alexander Körpner, Emil Adamec, Arpád Csipcser, Emo Kovac and Samuel Reiss. The members of the supervisory board were Ján Puškáš, Ján Langhoffer, Ján Sládek, Jozef Ulianko, Eduard Suara and Ján Rastocký. Decree No 18843/39/VI/16/4 of the Ministry of Finance of 6 December 1939 mandated that the bank should merge with Slovenská banka (Slovak Bank) in Bratislava from 1 January 1940. This merger never took place because another approach to the consolidation of banks was soon adopted. Novomestská úverná banka was one of several banks that were ordered into liquidation based on a decision of the government and Order No 14888/41 of the Ministry of Finance of 3 November 1941. All the assets and liabilities of these banks would be taken over by a new bank called Sedliacka banka (Farmer Bank) in Bratislava.
In 1949 the bank’s liquidation was taken over by Slovenská Tatra banka (Slovak Tatra Bank), national enterprise, in Bratislava. This process was cut short in 1950 when, based on Section 18 of Act No 181/1948, the Ministry of Finance ordered, by Decree No 265/1950, the merger of Novomestská úverná banka with Slovenská všeobecná úverná banka (Slovak General Credit Bank), Bratislava. The merger by universal succession without liquidation was effective from 1 January 1949. An order was also issued for the deletion of Novomestská úverná banka from the Companies Register.
The documents in this archival fonds were written in Slovak, with just the first Articles of Association being written in Hungarian. The bank’s documents were entered in the corporate archives of Štátna banka československá (State Bank of Czechoslovakia) at Marianka in a disorganised condition in 1956. In 1966 the fonds was processed in the archives of the regional branch of Štátna banka československá in Bratislava and an inventory was made. This inventory was modified and revised in 2015 in the archives of Národná banka Slovenska at 8 Cukrová Street in Bratislava, to which it had been transferred in 2003.
Last updated: Monday, November 18, 2024