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Tekovská ľudová banka, Levice
The roots of this institution go back to a cooperative founded in Topoľčianky in 1882 under the name Malotopoľčianske roľnícke družstevné a zálohové spoločenstvo, Topoľčianky (Malé Topoľčianky Farmers’ Cooperative and Loan Society, Topoľčianky). It was converted into a joint-stock company with share capital of 100,000 guldens and renamed Malotopoľčianska ľudová banka (Malé Topoľčianky People’s Bank) at a founding meeting on 9 February 1891. The founder and first managing director of the bank was a local businessman Bertalan Petö. Count Štefan Keglevich was elected chairman of the board of directors.
The bank focused mainly on taking deposits and providing loans to small depositors but also did business with local entrepreneurs, traders and large landowners. In the first year of its operations it achieved an annual turnover of 851,000 guldens and paid a 3% dividend. In 1893, the bank decided to relocate its headquarters to Zlaté Moravce with the aim of capturing more business. It also changed its name again, becoming Tekovská ľudová banka (Barsmegyei Népbank in Hungarian; Tekov County People’s Bank). By 1896, the share capital had grown to 300,000 guldens and the bank had branches in Vráble, Kalná nad Hronom, and Tekovské Lužany. In 1898, the bank relocated its Kalná nad Hronom branch to Levice to gain customers among the industrialists and merchants of this fastest growing town of the Tekov region.
The bank continued to grow gradually and in 1913 it had share capital of 3 million Austro-Hungarian crowns (K), a reserve fund of K 200,000, deposits amounting to K 8 million and a stock of loans of K 13.2 million. It made a net profit of K 262,000 and paid out dividends of K 13 per share. It took out a rediscount loan from the Austro-Hungarian Bank to cover the cost of its increased lending activity. The bank’s growth was interrupted during the First World War years when there was a decline in lending activity and net profit so it did not pay dividends in 1918–1919. It suffered significant losses due to war loans, which amounted to K 5.5 million in 1916.
However, rapid growth returned in the interwar period and it became the strongest rural bank in the territory of the then Tekov County. In 1921 it relocated its headquarters from Zlaté Moravce to Levice. The strong growth in the bank’s trading can be seen by comparing some of the key figures from its annual reports. In 1920, the bank operated with share capital of 3 million Czechoslovak crowns (Kč), it managed deposits of Kč 19.9 million and loans amounting to Kč 17.3 million, making a net profit of Kč 183,000 and paying out dividends of Kč 8 per share. In 1938, the share capital had increased to Kč 5 million; deposits had grown to Kč 113.1 million; the net profit was Kč 915,000 and it paid out dividends of Kč 24 per share. It participated in the consolidation of the Slovak banking system as part of its strategy of expanding its branch network. In 1922, it opened a branch in Šahy; two years later it took over Žarnovická sporiteľňa (Žarnovica Savings Bank), Žarnovická ľudová banka (Žarnovica People´s Bank), and Banskoštiavnický obchodný a úverový ústav (Trade and Credit Institution of Banská Štiavnica) through merger, replacing them with its own branches in Žarnovica and Banská Štiavnica. In 1926 it took over Levický úverný ústav (Levice Credit Institution) and Hospodárska ľudová banka pre Oslany a okolie (Farm People´s Bank for Oslany and surrounding areas). In 1927, it opened a branch in Nové Zámky and moved its Tekovské Lužany branch to Želiezovce.
The Vienna Arbitration of 1938 made a turning point in the bank’s activities because Levice was in the territory awarded to Hungary. However, the bank had branches in Zlaté Moravce, Banská Štiavnica, Žarnovica, and Oslany that were still in Slovakia. Alongside the headquarters in Levice, the bank’s branches in Vráble, Šahy, Štúrovo, Želiezovce, and Nové Zámky found themselves in the territory annexed by Hungary. Despite the efforts of the management of Tekovská ľudová banka, especially the staff of the Zlaté Moravce branch, to preserve the branches in Slovakia as an independent bank, and even despite lobbying support from Bishop Michal Buzalka, the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic rejected the continuity plan. Under an intergovernmental agreement with Hungary, the branches were taken over by Sedliacka banka (Farm Bank) in Bratislava in 1942.
Tekovská ľudová banka continued to operate on the Hungarian side of the border and raised its share capital to 1 million pengő in 1940 (in 1939, conversion from Czechoslovak crowns to Hungarian pengő at a rate of 7:1 had given it a share capital of 714,000 pengő). In 1940, it opened a branch in Komárno and in 1941 it obtained another by merging with a local savings bank in Vámosmikola. In 1939 it acquired influence over a rubber works in Budapest (Hungária gutapercha és gumiárugyár) and in 1941 it acquired control of a factory for the production of soap and vegetable fat in Levice, which it renamed as the Tekovské priemyselné závody, účastinná spoločnosť v Leviciach (Tekov industrial works, joint-stock company in Levice). It also entered the wholesale trade in grain and agricultural products.
At the end of the war, Tekovská ľudová banka and its branches once again came under the purview of the Czechoslovak banking system. A decision of the Slovak National Council’s Executive Authority for Finance of 19 June 1945 placed the bank under temporary administration, which, from 9 February 1946, was converted to national administration overseen by Július Hnilica, the manager of the Levice branch of Slovenská banka (Slovak Bank). The bank’s liquidation was ordered by decision of the Executive Authority for Finance of 12 June 1946 and, after various organisational changes, this was completed in 1950 with the bank’s deletion from the Companies Register.
The archival fonds was deposited in the corporate archives of Štátna banka československá (State Bank of Czechoslovakia) in Marianka, where an initial inventory was drawn up. The fonds was later transferred first to the archive building at 27 Krajná Street in Bratislava and then, in 2003 to its current home in the Národná banka Slovenska archives building at 8 Cukrová Street in Bratislava. The oldest document is a book of minutes of the board of directors from 1903. Most of the documents, however, date from the 1930s and 1940s.
Last updated: Monday, December 29, 2025