Ford Arm To Open Bank In Poland

Ford was granted a bank licence by the National Bank of Poland Wednesday. It is creating a subsidiary, Ford Bank Polska, which will enable it to start its own retail vehicle financing activities in the country.

As part of the price of entry to the Polish banking sector, Ford has agreed in a complicated deal to help bail out depositors at a failed Polish regional bank in Bydgoszcz, Bydgoski Bank Budownictwa.

Ford has placed several million US dollars on long-term deposit at Wielkopolski Bank Kredytowy, which is taking over the failed bank. Bydgoski Bank is to be liquidated this week.

David Flanigan, Ford Credit Europe chairman, said the group had faced a long process'' to obtain permission to set up the bank. Ford is planning to apply for a bank licence in Hungary shortly. In the Czech Republic, where the central bank has a moratorium on granting new bank licences, it is planning to establish a leasing and factoring subsidiary for financing vehicle sales and dealer stocks.

Operations in all three countries are expected to begin in the first half of 1997. Ford Credit Europe is incorporated in the UK, and the Polish bank licence is the first to be granted to a UK bank regulated by the Bank of England.

David Mercer, Ford Credit Europe business development manager, said that Ford expected Poland to become its sixth-largest market in Europe by 2000 for both vehicle sales and financing.

It opened a low volume assembly plant in late 1995. East Europe is one of the world's fastest growing new vehicle markets. New car sales in Poland, the largest market in central Europe, increased by 33 per cent in the first seven months this year, to 230,766. Ford expects its sales to rise from 12,000 this year to 18,000 in 1997. Ford said that it expected its financing operations to grow