New commitments made by Slovenia regarding the restructuring of the country’s largest bank Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) are being investigated by the European Commission.
“At this stage, the Commission has doubts whether the new Slovenian proposal can be considered equivalent to Slovenia’s original commitment,” the Commission, which oversees competition policy in the European Union, said on January 26.
As reported by the Reuters news agency, Slovenia, which fully owns the bank, had initially pledged to sell a first tranche of a 75% stake in NLB by the end of 2017, but put the sale plan on hold last June.
The Slovenian government, which has made several cash injections into NLB, notified the Commission of a set of new commitments in December.
Its proposals consist of an extension of the deadline for the sale as well as the appointment of an independent trustee to oversee Slovenia’s shareholders rights in the meantime.
