Medja, who is to take over at NLB on 1 October or when the central bank

gives its consent, told the press that he would like to have a free hand in

choosing his board and would not have accepted the post without the

supervisory board's assurances about this.

Acknowledging that he is

taking over at a difficult time, Medja, who was appointed to the NLB

supervisory board in June, stressed that he must yet acquaint himself with

all the operative and strategic challenges.

$There will surely

be talk about things about which nothing is known yet,$ added Medja,

who spent eleven years before coming to NLB with Unicredit Banka Slovenija,

considered one of the most healthy banks in Slovenia.

Between 2004

and 2008 Medja was the head of the department for corporate banking and

from September 2008 to April this year a member of the management board

responsible for corporate and investment banking.

He pointed to four

priorities in his term, the first one being for the bank to start working

with clients. While releasing the credit crunch will not be possible just

yet due to the situation in the economy, the bank $must acknowledge

that doing business with clients is the reason of its

existence$.

Moreover, Medja will take on the restructuring of

the bank to tidy up its balances which are struggling under the weight of

bad claims as well as the reshuffling of NLB's management and

organisation.

He would also take care of the bank's capital adequacy,

but this will not be possible without cooperation with national and

European regulators, according to the newly appointed chairman.

As

the most important task of his term, Medja stressed that he would try to

restore NLB's good name. According to him, the bank has suffered a huge

loss of repute at home as well as abroad over the past few years.

The

Finance Ministry meanwhile said that the decision of the supervisory board

was $an extremely positive signal for the domestic as well as foreign

financial public$.

The ministry expects the bank to get a

proactive management that will work with the ministry to draft solutions

for clearing the bank's portfolio of bad claims and securing capital

adequacy.

It moreover expressed expectation that the new management

would support the government to withdraw from NLB, which is in line with

the ruling coalition's decision to sell part of the state's 59.2% stake in

NLB, with Slovenia keeping a controlling interest of 25% plus one

share.

According to a press release, the ministry will call for a

shareholders' meeting to appoint Medja's replacement in the supervisory

board of the bank, which media suggest would be head of the Slovenian Bank

Association (ZBS) and former central bank governor France Arhar.