Živnostenská Banka

Živnostenská banka, a.s.
	UniCredit Bank Czech Republic
Headquarters	Prague, Czech Republic

Živnostenská banka (Full name until 1910 Živnostenská banka pro Čechy a Moravu v Praze, lit. 'Small Business Bank for Bohemia and Moravia in Prague',

UniCredit Bank Czech Republic

.

Austro-Hungarian era

Živnostenská banka was established in 1868 as a joint-stock company, acting as a middleman between the

Croatian Landesbank in Osijek, which in 1920 was relocated to Zagreb and renamed Jugoslavenska Banka.^[3] Prior to the World War I, ZIBA also took a minority holding in the Serbian Credit Bank in Belgrade

.

Just before the outbreak of World War I, ZIBA had 1,068 employees, 11 branches in Bohemia and Moravia, and branches in Vienna, Kraków, Lviv, and Trieste. At that time ZIBA alone accounted for almost a third of the total capital of the Czech banking system.

During World War I, it had to liquidate its branches in Kraków and Lemberg (now Lviv), whose businesses were transferred to local players.^[2]

Independent Czechoslovakia

ZIBA grew rapidly in the wake of the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in late 1918. In 1919, it took over control of the Böhmische Escompte-Bank (BEB) from the expropriated Austrian bank Niederösterreichische Escompte-Gesellschaft, and the BEB in turn acquired the operations of Austria's Creditanstalt in Czechoslovakia. At the same time, ZIBA opened branches in Bratislava and Košice which had become part of the new country.^[4]

ZIBA's managing director Jaroslav Preiss [cs] was instrumental in formulating Czechoslovakia's economic-nationalistic "nostrification" policy, ^[5] which forced the transfer of ownership of assets in Czechoslovakia to domestically-headquartered companies. This law also protected Czech banks from foreign competition. ZIBA consequently developed its investment banking activity. In 1922, it established a branch in London. It fostered mergers among large Czech industrial corporations, for example the creation of the mechanical engineering colossus ČKD, and systematically built up a dominant industrial portfolio, controlling 60 companies. In 1925, it shored up the Czech Bank in Prague (Czech: Česká banka v Praze) jointly with the National Bank of Czechoslovakia, and eventually took it over in 1939.^[6]

In 1928, ZIBA sold its Trieste branch and

Banca d'America e d'Italia.^[2] In 1938, it opened a branch in Žilina.^[4]

Nazi era

On 12 March 1938,

Petschek family business.^[2]

During Nazi occupation from 1939 and World War II, ZIBA was the only Czech bank that escaped direct annexation by German interests. Even so, it was forced to accept German control and to contribute heavily to financing the Nazis' war expenditures. It purchased almost a billion crowns' worth of Reich treasury bills, a sum about three times the ZIBA's capital stock. In June 1939, it fully took over the Czech Bank in Prague at the German authorities' request.^[6]

Postwar nationalisation and Communist era

In 1945, the new Czechoslovak government nationalized ZIBA, together with all other Czechoslovak banks.

State Bank of Czechoslovakia

, which was headquartered in its former head office.

A London Office of Zivnostenska Banka existed at No.48 Bishopsgate, managed by Bruno Pollack and his deputy Leonard Dunstan. The bank continued to exist on that site into the 1950s when it moved to another part of the City.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1950 and 1956, ZIBA continued to exist as a legal entity. Starting in 1956, ZIBA's past international and foreign exchange experience led the government to revive it and make it the primary Czechoslovak bank for Comecon import and export business, in which its London branch played a significant role. ZIBA was the repository for all foreign currency accounts maintained by expatriates, foreign firms operating in Czechoslovakia, and state agencies facilitating "invisible" trade such as tourism. In 1988, ZIBA resumed corporate business.

Post-Communist transition and merger into UniCredit

In 1992, ZIBA became the first bank in Central and Eastern Europe to be privatized.

Bankgesellschaft Berlin became the largest shareholder in ZIBA after taking over BHF's now 47% equity stake. Other significant shareholders were the IFC and Crédit Commercial de France. In 2000, Bankgesellschaft Berlin increased its stake in ZIBA to 85.16%. At the time, the bank had branches in Prague, Brno, České Budějovice, Karlovy Vary, Liberec, Ostrava, Pardubice and Zlín. It also had a representative office in Bratislava to handle operations in Slovakia

.

In 2002,

UniCredit Bank Czech Republic

.

Buildings

In the late 19th century, ZIBA erected a new head office on the prestigious

State Bank of Czechoslovakia after it absorbed ZIBA in 1950, and has remained the central office of the Czech National Bank after 1992. It was comprehensively renovated in 1997-2000.^[10]

ZIBA head office on Na příkopě, Prague, in 1905
ZIBA building as reconstructed in the late 1930s, viewed from Náměstí Republiky
Statue of Lucifer by Antonín Popp, retained from the 1900 head office building
Safe in the ZIBA building's basement
Former branch in Vienna, Herrengasse 12
Former branch in Olomouc (center)
Former branch in České Budějovice^[11]
Former head office of Zemská Banka, serving as ZIBA's head office in the 1990s and 2000s