Page 25 - bne_newspaper_May 5 2017

Weekly Lists
May 5, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 25
bne:Banker Turkey works on
legislation to allow banks to securitise loans
Slovenian bank NLB awaits consent from the EC to begin a phased sale
Turkey’s government is working on legislation to allow commercial lenders to securitise and sell all of their $515bn of outstanding loans to investors, Bloomberg reported on May 4.
“Policymakers have already completed technical work on the measure, which requires a new law to take effect. The legislation won’t restrict the type of loans that banks can securitise,” Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli told the news service in an inter- view on May 4. He declined to provide a time frame for the plan.
The planned legislation allows banks to package and securitise their assets in any format - a loan or a package of loans - and turn them into cash, the minister explained.
Slovenia’s largest lender, Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), is expect- ed to begin a phased sale of the bank if it receives permission to do so by the European Commission next week, public broadcaster RTV SLO reported on May 4.
NLB was nationalised in 2013 and Slovenia had committed to sell 75% of the bank by the end of 2017 in a restructuring plan that served as a basis for the European Commission's approval of state aid to the bank in the 2013 bailout. Initially the government planned to reduce its current 100% stake to 25% plus one share via an IPO in 2017, but it decided on April 13 to ask the Commission for per- mission to carry out a phased sale of the whole bank.
If the Commission gives its consent, the government would sell a 50% stake in NLB by the end of 2017 and a further 25% by the end of 2018.
Poland’s financial market regulator KNF has cleared the acquisi- tion of Pekao by state-controlled PZU and state investment fund PFR, the watchdog announced on May 4.
The approval moves the process of closing the acquisition of a ma- jor stake in the country’s second largest lender another step closer. The anti-trust office UOKiK cleared the PLN10.6bn (€2.5bn) deal in early April. The takeover is a key part of Warsaw's strategy to boost domestic ownership in the country’s banking sector, which is other- wise dominated by foreign players.
PZU and PFR agreed the deal to buy a 32.8% stake in Pekao from Italian banking group UniCredit in December. PZU will take a 20% stake. The parties have until December 8 to formalise the transaction.
Polish watchdog clears state purchase of banking giant Pekao