Československá obchodní banka, a.s. (ČSOB) is one of the largest

commercial banks A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit (finance), deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a Profit (economics), profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division o ...

operating in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

.Czech Top 100 – Finanční instituce
/ref> It is a universal bank that offers a full range of banking services to individuals and companies. It operates 280 ČSOB branded branches, and 3,300

Česká pošta Czech Post (Czech language, Czech: ''Česká pošta'') is the state-owned postal company of the Czech Republic. With its headquarters in Prague, the corporation employs around 23,500 employees (as of 2022). History History of the Czechoslov ...

(Czech postal company) branches under the brand name Poštovní spořitelna. The bank is owned by Belgium-based KBC Bank. Until 2008 ČSOB also operated in

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, but in 2008 a new company Československá obchodná banka, a.s. (ČSOB Slovakia) was created under direct control of KBC Bank. Czech ČSOB holds a 47% minority stake in Slovak ČSOB. Since 2011, the bank has sponsored the Czech

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

club HC Pardubice, which took the name ''HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice''.

History

ČSOB was established in 1964 in the former

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

as the sole bank providing foreign trade, financing and convertible currency operations. After 1989, ČSOB expanded its activity to include services for entrepreneurs and for individuals. A major milestone in ČSOB's history was its

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

in June 1999, when the Belgian KBC Bank (a member of the KBC Group NV) bought a 66% majority stake from the Czech government for 40 billion

CZK The koruna, or crown (currency sign, sign: Kč; ISO 4217, code: CZK, ), has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The koruna is one of the European Union's eight currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to Czech Repub ...

. Later, in 1999, KBC bought a further 16.63% stake from the

National Bank of Slovakia National Bank of Slovakia (, NBS) is the national central bank for Slovakia within the Eurosystem. It was the Slovak central bank from 1993 to 2008, issuing the koruna. Since 2014, it has been Slovakia's national competent authority within Eur ...

. At the same time the

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shortened to EBRD ( French: ''Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement'' or ''BERD''), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilat ...

purchased 7.47% from the NBS. Prior to acquiring its

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

competitor Investiční a poštovní banka in 1999, ČSOB was the fourth-largest bank in the Czech Republic. The acquisition of Investiční a poštovní banka, at the time the third-largest Czech bank, brought an additional 3.3 million customers and a network of 179 branches. Since 1 July 2008 ČSOB Slovakia has begun to merge with Istrobanka following the latter's acquisition by KBC. In November 2009, KBC announced a plan to float 40% of ČSOB on the

Prague Stock Exchange Prague Stock Exchange (PSE; ) is the largest and oldest securities market organizer in the Czech Republic. It is a 99.54 percent-owned subsidiary of Wiener Börse AG. PSE and its subsidiaries comprise the PX group. In addition to the Stock Exch ...

the following year. In 2010 ČSOB established the Era brand wanting to attract younger customer, but was not able to do so and in 2015 started to advertise the brand together with its subsidiary Poštovní spořitelna. In 2014 the CEO of ČSOB, Pavel Kavánek, who held the position for 20 years, was replaced by John Hollows. Kavánek went on to direct the supervisory board of ČOSB until Zdeněk Tůma took over the position in 2019. Hollows retired in 2022 after being with the KBC group for 25 years and was followed by Aleš Blažek, the former CEO of KBC Bank Ireland. ČSOB bought the largest online

travel insurance Travel insurance is an insurance product for covering unexpected losses incurred while travelling, either internationally or domestically. Basic policies generally only cover emergency medical expenses while overseas, while comprehensive policies ...

seller in the Czech Republic, Top-Pojištění, in 2016. At the time Top-Pojištění had 270,000 clients and stayed an independent insurance broker offering insurances from 13 different companies. In 2019 ČSOB bought the remaining 45% of Českomoravská stavební spořitelna (ČMSS) from

Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG () is a building society in Germany, active abroad with subsidiaries in Eastern Europe and China. It has more than 10 million customers. Shareholders are the cooperative central bank DZ Bank (96.8 percent) in Fran ...

(BSH) for 6.15 billion crowns. ČMSS had 1.3 million customers and was the largest provider of construction savings in the Czech Republic when it was taken over. Because ČSOB refused to replace damaged banknotes in 2018 and 2019, the

Czech National Bank The Czech National Bank, (, ČNB) is the central bank and financial market supervisor in the Czech Republic, headquartered in Prague. It is a member of the European System of Central Banks. It was established on from the division of the State ...

(ČNB) fined the bank 1.5 million crowns in 2020. In December 2020 ČSOB was sued by the TEP Praha company for withholding 1.3 billion CZK, which, according to TEP Praha, were meant to be invested into a railway hub near

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

in Slovakia. ČSOB withheld the funds due to their unclear origins as the listed address of the headquarters of TEP Praha were leading to a run-down building that was auctioned off earlier in 2020 and because the company was not active in the years before the lawsuit. The funds were later suspected to come from Russia in an money laundering scheme, since the Russian

honorary consul A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

of Slovakia had asked the Belgian honorary consul of Slovakia to investigate the withholding of the money. In 2022, the subsidiary Poštovní spořitelna was renamed ČSOB Poštovní spořitelna and ČSOB allowed the customers to use their branch network as well as their services. In 2023 ČSOB was ordered to pay 3.7 billion CZK in an abitral to the Icec-Holding, which the company had initiated in 2016. Icec-Holding had sued the Investiční a poštovní banku (IPB), whose legal issues ČSOB took over together with the bank later on, in 1999 claiming the IPB broke contractual obligations by taking over a

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

n paper mill Icec held shares in.

ČSOB Group

ČSOB Group is one of the largest financial institutions in the Czech Republic. From 1 January 2013 KBC Group's core market activities have been arranged in three business units: Belgium, the Czech Republic and International Markets.

Financial data

Headquarters

* Československá obchodní banka, a.s., Radlická 333/150, 150 57

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, Czech Republic * Československá obchodná banka, a.s., Michalská 18, 815 63

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, Slovakia

References

External links