About the Bank

Všeobecná úverová banka, Bratislava was established on January 1st 1990 after being singled out from the former Státní banka československá. Its branch office in Prague opened on 20th November 1991, at that time being still a local branch office. In April 1992, the transformation was made from state financial institution to joint-stock company.

After the split of Czechoslovakia and the rise of two independent states, Všeobecná úverová banka, a.s., applied for permission to act as bank in the Czech Republic. This permission was granted by Česká národní banka on January 14th 1993.

An important milestone in the development of products and services was November 2001 when the privatization of Všeobecná úverová banka, a.s., including its Prague Branch was completed. Its principal stockholder is now the important Italian banking group IntesaBci with a 94.47% share in the capital assets.

The IntesaBci financial group came into existence by a merger of Italian banks originally known under names of Banca Commerciale Italiana, CARIPLO, Banco Ambrosiano Veneto and several others. In January 2003, the name of the IntesaBci financial group was changed Banca Intesa.

Banca Intesa is at the moment Italy's largest banking house and one of the foremost financial groups in Europe. Banca Intesa is active in more than 40 countries of the world. Apart from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it is developing its business activities in the frame of the Central and Eastern European region also in Hngary, Croatia and Poland.

Banca Intesa is operating more than four thousand branch offices of which approximately 1000 are outside the territory of Italy.