When the assets are transferred the BAMC will start pooling them together and selling them, which will require at least 10-15 years, BAMC executive director Torbjörn Mansson told the press.

"We want to optimise the market value of assets. We should not be under time pressure, that would reduce the price of assets," said Janezom Škrubej, director of claims management.

BAMC expects to take on the first non-performing loans from NLB and NKBM at the end of December pending approval from the EU. All bad loans are to be transferred in a total of five packages through April.

The procedures for NLB and NLBM are to be concluded soon as they have already received state aid, but for Abanka it will take a bit longer since it needs to put forward a restructuring plan first, said Mansson.

"The final list of the transfers has not yet been made, we're still several days from that," said Škrubej.

The government and the central bank have promised the list of assets for transfer will be made public, but Škrubej noted they would not include information that would depress the value of assets.

The banks will transfer non-performing loans, mostly to companies, along with the collateral.

The top three banks will transfer assets worth EUR 4.5bn at a transaction value of EUR 1.68bn in exchange for state-backed bonds issued by BAMC.

The bad bank currently has a staff of 20, ten more are expected in January and another ten in February.