The decision comes as the subsidiary of the Austrian Erste bank group works to relaunch the Diners Club International franchise in Slovenia after the former franchisee Diners Club Slovenije was stripped of its license in mid-May for running late on payments to retailers.

Banka Slovenije said on Friday that the license relates to payment services for Diners Club charge cards, payment transactions related to the cards and contracts with retailers enabling the use of the cards.

It was issued after a series of checks to verify that the new franchise holder meets the conditions for performing payment services, including in terms of its assets, system of risk management, internal controls and management structure.

Erste Card Club is currently making arrangements to repay the EUR 22m debt of Diners Club Slovenija as part of a rescue deal reached on 20 June by Diners Club International, creditor banks of Diners' Slovenian franchise and Erste.

Under the deal, the debt of Diners Club Slovenije and its subsidiary DC Finance will be repaid without interest by Diners Club International. Financing is to be provided by UniCredit Banka Slovenija and Hypo Alpe Adria Bank.

The suspension of card payments left 80,000 Slovenian card holders unable to use their cards for payments.