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 26 and 27 March 2025.
Považská agrárna a priemyselná banka, Žilina
Považská agrárna a priemyselná banka (Váh Region Agrarian and Industrial Bank) was established in 1901 under the Hungarian name Vágvölgyi Agrár és Iparbank with share capital of 400,000 Austro-Hungarian crowns (K). In 1909 the bank merged with Oberungarische Volksbank AG Turzovka and the share capital was increased to K 600,000, then raised again to K 1 million in 1910. Between 1917 and 1921 the bank paid dividends of between 7% and 9%. It participated in the financing of the Žilina pulp mill and smaller credit institutions in Púchov and Ilava. The bank’s successful development was only disrupted by the First World War, during which it was unable to avoid the duty of 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. The bank made it through the post-war economic crisis and in 1924 it increased its share capital to 2 million Czechoslovak crowns (Kč).
It was unable to come to terms with the Great Depression a decade later, and in 1932 it entered liquidation, which was managed by the Žilina branch of Banka československých légií, Prague (Bank of the Czechoslovak Legions, Legiobanka). Zvláštny fond pre zmiernenie strát z povojnových pomerov, Bratislava (Special Fund for Mitigation of Postwar Losses) and Všeobecný fond peňažných ústavov v Republike Československej, Bratislava (General Fund of Credit Institutions in the Czechoslovak Republic) provided support amounting to Kč 12 million. This support was provided mainly for the judicial settlement of creditors’ claims, which were guaranteed by Banka československých légií up to 75%. The liquidation of all receivables was completed only in 1952.
A small number of documents relating to the bank’s activities have been preserved. The most significant are the general and auxiliary account ledgers for the period 1932 to 1949 and part of the files on the liquidation from 1935 to 1952. The bank’s 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 in 1968 and a temporary inventory was made. In 1993 the fonds was transferred to the archives of Národná banka Slovenska in Bratislava, where the inventory was revised in 2016.
Last updated: Friday, November 22, 2024