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Spojená úverná banka a Košická sporiteľňa, Košice
In 1942 the merger of the two largest financial institutions in Košice created Spojená hornouhorská úverná banka a Košická sporiteľňa, účastinná spoločnosť (Combined Upper Hungarian Credit Bank and Košice Savings Bank, joint stock company, Košice), which operated under the Hungarian name Egyesült felsőmagyarországi hitelbank és Kassai takarékpénztár. It combined the former Hornouhorská úverná banka (Upper Hungarian Credit Bank) and Košická sporiteľňa, Košice (Košice Savings Bank). The background to this merger was that in 1939 the Hungarian General Credit Bank purchased a majority interest in Košická sporiteľňa (Košice’s oldest financial institution) from the Bohemian Discount Bank, Prague, and when it subsequently purchased Hornouhorská úverná banka for 3.25 million pengő in 1942, it decided to put the two Košice-based banks together.
From 1 July 1942 to the end of 1944, this financial institution kept an industrial deposit of 6.6 million pengő in its parent institution in Budapest. The profit of the parent institution based on normal placement of the surpluses from its subsidiary over two and a half years would have been at least 1.1 million pengő, meaning that in this period the Hungarian General Credit Bank earned back around a third of the purchase price of Hornouhorská úverná banka. With the purchase, it also acquired that bank’s branches in Nové Zámky, Komárno and Dunajská Streda. The creation of Spojená hornouhorská úverná banka a Košická sporiteľňa brought the Hungarian General Credit Bank a strong, well-organised institution that was a pillar not only of banking but all economic life in the region. It had its head office in Košice, where it was also represented by a foreign exchange office, branches in Berehove, Lučenec, Mukachevo, Rožňava and Uzhhorod and affiliated institutions in Rimavská Sobota and Tornaľa. The bank prospered during the war. Deposits at the head office as of 31 December 1944 amounted to 22.4 million pengő and surpluses were invested relatively profitably, mainly through the three branches in Subcarpathian Ruthenia.
The Hungarian General Credit Bank, Budapest, which owned nearly 98% of the shares in Spojená hornouhorská úverná banka a Košická sporiteľňa had several ties with banks and industry in Slovak territories. Besides its branch in Nové Zámky, there was Komárňanská prvá sporiteľňa, Komárno, which had a branch in Dunajská Streda, Bratislavská prvá sporivá banka, Bratislava, which had branches in Nitra and Malacky, an agricultural processing firm Diosecké hospodárstvo, cukrovar a liehovar, účastinná spoločnosť (Karol Stummer’s sugar refineries), and a steam mill and starch processing company Parkaňský umelý mlyn a továreň na škrob, účastinná spoločnosť (a company in the Hungária group, associated steam mills, an accounting company) In 1939 the Hungarian General Credit Bank purchased shares in a flax and hemp factory in Nové Zámky for around 950,000 Czechoslovak crowns (Kč) and shares in the Ella company, a mill in Bátorove Kosihy, for Kč 390,000, though this firm was not included in the list of the institution’s interests.
The board of directors of Spojená hornouhorská úverná banka a Košická sporiteľňa included the following members – landowner Count Ján Esterházy, landowner Count Štefan Révay, member of the upper house of parliament Július Deák, director general attorney Gejza Kuthy, member of the upper house of parliament Štefan Móricz, member of the upper house of parliament Július Simonkay, chief economic counsellor Loránd Ferenczy, chief government counsellor Jozef Gomos, chamberlain Ľudevít Mándy, chief financial counsellor František Ory, wholesaler Aladár Sipos, chief government counsellor Jozef Király, chief government counsellor Edmund Mariássy, landowner Ľudevít Oelschläger, wholesaler and member of parliament Mikuláš Pajor, lawyer Ladislav Rozman, wholesaler and notary public Pavel Szmrecsányi.
The members of the supervisory board were chief government counsellor Karol Rázgha, Count Jozef Esterházy, factory owner Štefan Revécsey-Anisich, landowner Štefan Soós, bank auditor Ľudevít Forszter – metallurgical director and wholesaler, chief engineer Karol Reminiczky, Alexander Szabó – authorised signatory of the bank, lawyer Samuel Wohl.
The bank’s activities were severely disrupted by events as 1944 turned into 1945. By Decree No 25 of the National Council for Transcarpathian Ukraine of 25 December 1944, the branches of Spojená hornouhorská úverná banka a Košická sporiteľňa in Uzhhorod, Mukachevo and Berehove were to be nationalised and liquidated under the administration of the National Bank for Transcarpathian Ukraine. After the liberation of Košice, the bank’s head office in Košice and the branches in Lučenec and Rožňava were placed in temporary administration. The temporary administrators appointed by Decree No 2882/1945-VI of the Slovak National Council of 5 May 1945 were Vladimír Hubka, Jindřich Stejskal and Gejza Weil. Based on Sections 1 and 9 of Regulation No 7 of the Executive Authority of the Slovak National Council for Finance of 23 March 1945, the temporary administrators made the bank’s Slovak name, Spojená hornouhorská úverná banka a Košická sporiteľňa, účastinná spoločnosť, Košice, its official name from 26 June 1945. Liquidation of the financial institution was ordered on 20 October 1946.
In 1950 it was taken over with universal succession and with all its rights and obligations by Slovenská všeobecná úverná banka with retroactive effect from 1 January 1949. It was deleted from the Companies Register on 22 January 1951.
Until 1960 the bank’s documents were stored at what was then 1 Stalingrad Street in Košice. Ústredná likvidačná kancelária (Central Liquidation Office) in Bratislava had access to them and probably held additional archival material. In 1961 the documents were transferred, with the liquidators’ consent, to the corporate archive of Štátna banka československá at 4 Vrátna Street in Košice, where an internal sorting and disposal process was carried out a year later. In 1990 the documents were transferred to the Archives of Národná banka Slovenska at 27 Krajná Street in Bratislava and moved to the archival building at 8 Cukrová Street in Bratislava in 2003.
An inventory of the archival fonds was made in the corporate archive of Štátna banka československá in Košice in 1962. This was supplemented and revised at the Archives of Národná banka Slovenska in 2016. The fonds consists of over a hundred books, mainly account books, from the head office, securities of various financial institutions and industrial enterprises and personnel files. Some balance sheet and loan information from the branches in Mukachevo, Rožňava and Uzhhorod has also been preserved.
Last updated: Friday, December 29, 2023