At a press conference held yesterday morning, Ceska sporitelna spoke of its plans for rapid credit expansion in retail banking, including the subsidizing of interest rates for retail customers and mortgage borrowers. Other banks claim that the loans, priced at 300 bps below market rates, represent unfair competition. The bank also emphasised its drive to improve service quality, which is low at the moment. CS also aims to reduce its staff from 14,130 at the end of 2000 to 12,000 in 2001 and to 10,000 by 2002 year-end. CS is due to launch Internet banking for savings accounts in April 2001 and GSM banking by mid-2001. Not important for the stock.
(Ondřej Daťka)