Headquartered in Ljubljana, Abanka holds a market share by assets of just under 11%.

The merged bank, which will be headed by the erstwhile Abanka Vipa boss Jože Lenič, plans to focus on retail banking and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The new entity has about 1,300 employees, but given geographical overlap, in particular in Celje area, layoffs are expected.

Some media reports have suggested up to 300 employees would be let go and 10 branches closed, but the bank has been tight-lipped beyond confirming that the integration process would involve staff cuts.

The merger is the direct result of the late-2013 bank bailout, when both banks were nationalised with a combined capital injection of EUR 781m.

At the same time they offloaded non-performing loans worth a combined EUR 822m to the Bank Asset Management Company (BAMC).

Abanka is thus in 100% ownership of the state and is slated to be sold by the end of 2019 in line with EU state aid requirements.

While the merger is so far the biggest consolidation step on the Slovenian banking market, it is by no means the last one.

Maribor-based bank NKBM has recently been privatised and Slovenia must privatise NLB, the market leader, by the end of 2017, though it may retain a controlling stake.

Austrian-owned Raiffeisen and Russian-owned Sberbank are also for sale, as is Gorenjska banka following an order by the central bank that its biggest owner, the conglomerate Sava, divest.