In the Central Bank of Montenegro, today, according to Vijesti television, there was a discussion again about the merger of two banks on the Montenegrin market - Crnogorska komercijalje and Societe ženeral Montenegro banka. Representatives of these two banks had a previous meeting in the same place with Governor Radoje Žugić.
According to unconfirmed information, in addition to the representatives of Societe General Bank and Žugić, Prime Minister Duško Marković and Finance Minister Darko Radunović also attended today's meeting for the first time. So far, the Central Bank has not been in the mood to allow mergers, according to the Union of Banks.
"Mr. Žugić and vice-governor Fabris, at the meeting we had, expressed a completely identical position, as did the trade union, that in fact the merger of those two banks would not be good at all, especially because of payment transactions, which in that case would cover 60 percent of the Montenegrin market ", said the president of the Union of Banks of Montenegro, Lidija Pejović.
The story about the possibility of OTP buying Societe Generale has been current since the summer of last year. Uncertainty especially worries the employees, because as the union claims, if the two banks merge, layoffs will rain.
"400 employees, which means 400 families in Montenegro, will lose not only without a salary, or a job, but they would also be left without a roof over their heads, because all these people are indebted and a big problem for the state would appear, they would applied either for early retirement, or to the labor office," says Pejović.
Economists are even more concerned about the financial impact of a possible merger.
"The Central Bank is in a specific situation, when the parliament did not elect the vice-governors of the Central Bank, when we also have the mandate of the Council of the Central Bank that has expired. So the responsibility is huge on the Council of the Central Bank, for the simple reason that it is about two banks that have a large participation on the Montenegrin market, I think that their joint assets are more than one billion euros, so equal to the Montenegrin budget and more, and therefore their participation in the market as two systemic banks requires great caution when making decisions," said SNP official Aleksandar Damjanović.
Today's meeting at the Central Bank was not announced to the public. After the interest of TV Vijesta, the government issued only a short statement, that Marković spoke with the representatives of Societe Generale Group and that the significant contribution that bank had so far to the development of the banking sector and the Montenegrin economy as a whole was noted.
The meeting also reportedly discussed the strategy of Societe Generale Group in the region and Montenegro. If that strategy supports the announced merger with OTP on the domestic banking market, the trade union and economists have a message:
"Necessary caution and consideration of all possible aspects of events on our banking market," said Damjanović
"I expect them to be against such a disastrous decision," said Pejović.
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