Ceska sporitelna will increase monthly fees for direct banking services in March

Ceska sporitelna, Erste Bank's 98%-owned subsidiary, will significantly increase monthly fees for its direct banking services as of March 1. The fees were temporarily set low to attract clients and their increase had thus been expected. We believe that further upward adjustments are rather likely in the medium term. The March increase should boost CS's revenues by up to EUR 10m annually. Note that CS and Erste Bank release their consolidated IFRS 2003 results on March 17.

Jan Hájek