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Prievidzská gazdovská banka, Prievidza
The bank was established at the initiative of Koloman Bresztyenszky, a member of the Hungarian parliament and the owner of several agricultural estates around Prievidza, who went on to become its largest shareholder. The share capital of 100,000 Austro-Hungarian crowns (K) consisted of 2,000 registered shares, each having a nominal value of K 50. Most of the shareholders came from Prievidza, Nitrianske (Nemecké) Pravno, Veľká Lehota, Necpaly, Nováky, Malá Čausa and Ráztočno.
The founding general meeting on 17 January 1906 approved the bank’s articles of association and elected its board of directors. The board would have three to twelve members serving for a three-year term, elected by the general meeting from the ranks of the shareholders. The supervisory board would have seven members likewise elected for a three-year term. The managing director of the bank was Koloman Bresztyenszky, the chief accountant was Alexander Kalina, the treasurer was Štefan Kmetko, and the bank’s attorney was Dezider Haitsch. Other important figures in the establishment of the bank included Valentín Vavro, Teodor Moser, Matej Sooska and Ernest Sporzon.
The bank was initially registered under the Hungarian name Privigyei gazdasági bank, részvénytársaság (Prievidza Agricultural Bank, joint-stock company) and used this name until the First World War. Thereafter it began to refer to itself in Slovak as Prievidzská gazdovská banka (Prievidza Agricultural Bank). Its territorial coverage was approximately within the area bordered by Nitrianske Pravno, Nováky and Veľká Lehota, reaching to Handlová in the east. The bank was entered in the Companies Register on 26 February 1906 and its activities also started from this date. A year later it established a branch in Nitrianske Pravno in response to requests from the local community. Alongside its deposits and net profit, the share capital also grew. It was raised from K 100,000 to K 200,000 in 1912. In this period there was also increased demand for loans. The First World War did not have a major adverse effect on the bank’s operations.
After the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic, the bank reinforced its position in the financial market. The Great Depression at the end of the 1920s and the start of the 1930s led to a decrease in deposits and difficulties in repaying loans. As the crisis abated, the bank achieved a modest recovery. The bank made loans mainly in the agricultural sector (loans to smallholders, the large estate at Bojnice, the Kuzmice Water Cooperative, the Topoľčany Agricultural Warehouse Cooperative). It also provided loans to other credit institutions (Chynoranská ľudová banka, Živnostenský úverový ústav in Handlová) and invested in the wood-processing industry (Drevopriemysel Prievidza, Drevársky účastinársky spolok in Bratislava), the Carpathia distillery and other chemical works in Prievidza and the Baťa works in Partizánske (Šimonovany). It financed electrification work in several municipalities (Bojnice, Nitrianske Pravno) and provided loans to the Prievidza district.
The bank always had close ties to the Catholic church and in the later period of the first Czechoslovak Republic and the Slovak state, it established strong connections with the Hlinka Slovak People’s Party (the governing party of the Slovak state). This may explain how it successfully put off being taken over during the consolidation of the banking sector that the Slovak government began in 1939.
The Ministry of Finance issued an initial order for Prievidzská gazdovská banka to merge with Ľudová banka (People´s Bank), Ružomberok, in December 1939. This merger never took place. Shortly afterwards, the ministry issued a new order for it to merge with Tatra banka, Martin (as of 1 January 1941).
The bank's management strongly objected to these orders and sent protest letters to the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance in an effort to stop them. They referred to the bank’s established traditions and the credit needs of the Upper Nitra region and proposed strengthening the situation by merging their bank with Prvá prievidzská banka (First Prievidza Bank) in Prievidza. They also lodged a complaint against the Ministry’s order with the Supreme Administrative Court, which temporarily suspended its effect. Nevertheless, in 1943 the Ministry of Finance confirmed the order and Tatra banka took over Prievidzská gazdovská banka with all its assets and liabilities as at 31 December 1943. The bank’s head office merged with Tatra banka’s branch in Prievidza and its branch in Nitrianske Pravno became a sub-branch of Tatra banka. The members of the board of directors and supervisory board residing in Prievidza became the local committee of the Tatra banka branch and functionaries outside the town became Tatra banka’s agents. Tatra banka promised to employ all of the active employees of Prievidzská gazdovská banka. The takeover agreement received the necessary approval of the Ministry of Finance in Decree No 4351/44-VI/16 of 4 April 1944 and it was effective in practice from 17 April 1944.
Archival documents relating to the activities of the bank were entered in the corporate archives of Štátna banka československá (State Bank of Czechoslovakia) in Ružomberok. The fonds was transferred to what became the archives of Národná banka Slovenska at 27 Krajná Street in Bratislava some time before 1992 and it was moved to its archive building at 8 Cukrová Street in Bratislava in 2003. A temporary inventory of the archival fonds was made in 1968 and expanded and revised in 2016. The fonds consists mainly of account ledgers and files containing lists of deposits, claims, various reports including audit reports and annual reports as well as documents relating to several loans.
Last updated: Friday, November 22, 2024