Who are the owners of Croatian banks? There are currently 20 banks operating in Croatia and one housing savings bank, and N1 investigated who owns what.
Almost 90 percent of all banks in Croatia are under foreign ownership, 88.9 percent to be precise, and what remains is either under the ownership of the Croatian state or private Croatian owners.
The largest foreign share of the Croatian banking industry is controlled by Italy, by purchasing the mega Croatian banks of Privredna and Zagrebačka banks they took almost half of the market share, 48 percent.
Italian ownership is followed by Austrian ownership in second place, and Austrian companies own a 29.7 percent stake in the Croatian banking system. Austrian companies own a total of three banks in Croatia, Addiko, Erste and Raiffeisen banks.
The owner of OTP Bank is from Hungary and meaning that Hungary has 10.1 percent of the market share.
Whilst Italy, Austria and Hungary are the largest foreign owners there are also foreign bank owners from the Czech Republic, Turkey and Germany.
This situation in Croatia follows a pattern of foreign banking ownership over most of Eastern Europe. In fact, a total of 15 countries in Eastern Europe have more than 50 percent of their banking assets owned by foreign companies. Whilst in Germany it is around 12 percent, in Italy 8 percent and in the US roughly 6 percent.