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If approved, the plan will be the basis for the state to carry out the second part of the planned recapitalisation at the bank and the subsequent launch of transfers of its non-performing loans to the bad bank.

The Finance Ministry said on Tuesday it had received the plan from the bank, which was already indirectly state-controlled before the recapitalisation, and forwarded it to Brussels on Monday.

While Abanka has not disclosed it so far, the plan is expected to follow the course of the two leading banks, NLB and NKBM, which wish to focus on basic operations and plan cuts in the number of offices and employees.

The newspapers Dnevnik and Finance have reported that the bank would focus on retail and corporate business, that the workforce would be reduced by around 10% and that some operations would be scrapped, among them investment banking and factoring.

Following nods for NLB and NKBM, the European Commission approved at the end of last week temporary state aid for Abanka.

The state was able to recapitalise it with EUR 348m and another EUR 243m are expected to follow once the restructuring plan is confirmed, while an expected EUR 543m worth of bad loans are moreover to be transferred to the Bank Asset Management Company (BAMC).