The supervisory board of Československá Obchodná Banka (ČSOB), based in Prague, has approved the sale of a 24% stake in ČSOB held by the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) to the Belgian KBC Bank. KBC bought a 66% stake in the Czech bank for over 40 billion Czech crowns last month. The sale of the NBS's stake in ČSOB is subject to the consent of the country's central bank - the Czech National Bank (ČNB).
NBS Governor Vladimír Masár said at a news conference in Bratislava on July 26 that the price paid by KBC for the Slovak stake would be similar to what the Belgian bank paid for the Czech stake in ČSOB. He also said he was willing to discuss a hotly disputed debt owed by the Slovak state fund Slovenská Inkasná to the ČSOB.
