Post Office Savings Bank

Post Office Savings Bank, known in Czech as Poštovní spořitelna and later as ČSOB Poštovní spořitelna, is a retail-banking brand in the Czech Republic. It began in 1991 as an independent bank called Poštovní banka and adopted the name Poštovní spořitelna in 1995. The brand became part of the ČSOB group in 2000; the supplied account identifies ČSOB as owned by Belgium’s KBC Bank. It is a commercial brand of ČSOB rather than a separately described current banking group. The brand’s distribution has been closely connected with Česká pošta, the Czech postal service. Its services have been offered at postal counters and through its own financial centres. The cited account describes a network of 80 financial centres and more than 3,000 Czech Post branches, and says it serves approximately two million clients. Its stated focus is everyday banking for individuals and business customers. Products mentioned include accounts, consumer loans, insurance, investment funds and children’s passbooks. ČSOB introduced the Era brand alongside Poštovní spořitelna in 2010. As the services and brand developed, ČSOB later unified the customer service and products of the two brands. On 6 June 2022, Poštovní spořitelna changed its name to ČSOB Poštovní spořitelna and began using ČSOB’s blue logo. The source describes this change as part of closer integration with ČSOB and the gradual winding down of the separate brand. The available evidence therefore supports describing it as an active ČSOB brand with a stated plan to reduce its standalone identity; it does not establish that the brand or its services have since ceased.

The name Post Office Savings Bank refers here to the Czech commercial banking brand described in the source as Poštovní spořitelna and, from 2022, ČSOB Poštovní spořitelna. The source traces the modern entity to 1991, when it was established as an independent bank under the name Poštovní banka. It adopted the name Poštovní spořitelna in 1995. In that year, it was taken over by Investiční a poštovní banka. In 2000 it became part of the ČSOB group, which the source says is owned by Belgium’s KBC Bank. Postal distribution became a defining feature of the brand’s customer access. It provided services at Česká pošta counters and at Poštovní spořitelna financial centres. The source describes an extensive Czech network: 80 of the brand’s financial centres and more than 3,000 Czech Post branches. It reports approximately two million clients and characterizes the business as focused on retail banking, serving individuals as well as business customers. The product range described in the account includes a children’s savings passbook, consumer lending, accounts, insurance and investment funds. In 2010, the Era brand began operating alongside Poštovní spořitelna. Later, as the services and brands developed, ČSOB unified the customer service and products of Era and Poštovní spořitelna, removing the rationale for keeping the brands operationally separate. The source records several product developments: Poštovní půjčka was introduced in 2016; Poštovní účet followed in 2017; and sales of Poštovní pojištění and Poštovní fondy began at the start of 2018. It also reports that ČSOB extended its cooperation with Česká pošta for another ten years in 2017, broadening the products and services available through post offices. On 6 June 2022, the brand changed its name to ČSOB Poštovní spořitelna and adopted ČSOB’s blue logo. The source explains that the change was intended to link the services of ČSOB and Poštovní spořitelna more closely and to gradually reduce the standalone brand. This is the latest dated brand development in the supplied account. The account also contains a separate historical overview of earlier postal-savings institutions in Czech and Czechoslovak history, including the Czechoslovak Post Office Savings Bank founded in 1918 and the transformation of the Postal Cheque Office into a Post Office Savings Bank in 1930. Those historical institutions provide context for postal savings, but should not be conflated with the modern commercial brand founded in 1991.

• Established as Poštovní banka

• Adopted the Poštovní spořitelna name

• Joined the ČSOB group

• Era began operating alongside Poštovní spořitelna

• Poštovní půjčka introduced

• Poštovní účet introduced

• Poštovní pojištění and Poštovní fondy sales began

• Renamed ČSOB Poštovní spořitelna

A broadly accessible Czech retail-banking brand using the Czech Post network and its own financial centres, with services for individuals and businesses. The source describes its standalone brand identity as being gradually phased down in favour of closer integration with ČSOB.

• Poštovní účet

  An account offering introduced in 2017.

• Poštovní půjčka

  A loan offering introduced in 2016.

• Poštovní pojištění

  An insurance offering whose sales began at the start of 2018.

• Poštovní fondy

  Investment funds whose sales began at the start of 2018.

• Children’s savings passbook

  A passbook account that the source says can be opened for children from birth and serviced at financial centres and Czech Post branches.

1. 1ČSOB Poštovní spořitelnacs.wikipedia.org
2. 2Post Office Savings Bankwikidata.org
3. 3Post Office Savings Bank websitepostovnisporitelna.cz