The term ‘credit crunch”, which means a severe shortage of money or credit, entered dictionaries shortly after August 2007, when the French bank Paribas announced a sharp rise in the cost of credit. A year later IndyMac, America’s second largest mortgage lender, collapsed. Two months later the public is shocked by the news of the fall of another American bank.
The news that America’s 158-year-old investment bank Lehman Brothers had announced bankruptcy was inconceivable to the financial sector. The results were devastating. Markets across Europe and Asia were hit hard. Stock prices plummeted by record amounts. Even the injection of emergency funds from governments, which claimed they were ‘on top of the situation”, did not prevent big losses in stock markets, record lows for the dollar and huge swings in the prices of oil and gold. Amidst the panic-stricken investors and the turmoil in the banking sector, Poland has decided to open its financial market to a new bank.
Alior, the name given to the bank, will open its doors to the public towards the end of this year. It is currently recruiting staff for its headquarters in Warsaw and subsidiary in Cracow. By 2011, it will be employing three and a half thousand workers. The working capital of the bank places it among the top ten banks in Poland, with a sum of 1.5 billion zloty. The bank’s forecasts are quite optimistic. In the next three years it would like to own from two to three percent of the Polish banking market. With over 200 branches scattered around Poland it will try to attract customers with a competitive portfolio of products and services.
The logo of the bank is comprised of two squares. On the left square we can see an angel’s face, on the right square the name of the bank. The angel’s face is meant to symbolize safety and protection, professionalism and respect. The international Italian group Carlo Tassara, who are the investors, have stirred the Polish financial market with the largest investment in the history of the country’s banking sector.
[link=http://d52.rp.pl/audio/vol3/lekcja3.mp3]Wersja audio[/link]
