The Polish government has adopted amendments to banking laws to facilitate the merger of Bank Pekao and Bank BPH, which both became subsidiaries of UniCredito after the Italian bank acquired HVB. However, the government still has to complete the amendments soon to meet a 19 October deadline.
Speculation in the Polish press suggests that it is unlikely that the government will meet the deadline.
If so, UniCredito will not demerge those parts of Bank BPH that it undertook to sell to secure agreement to the acquisition from the Polish authorities. This may delay completion of the merger to 2008.