The Erste Bank was one of the first things I noticed when I arrived in
Zagreb and I still can’t get it out of my mind. It’s not just because it’s
everywhere, but it also shares the same logo as the German Sparkassen.
After trying to find the connection between the Erste Bank, which is an
Austrian entity, and the German Sparkassen, it seems the two are completely
separate entities. The Erste Bank had simply adopted the German Sparkasse
logo and had to pay the German entity around €10m per year in licensing
fees.

derstandard.at/1297821614445/Erste-Group-Logo-Biene-soll-S-als-neues-Sparkassen-Logo-folgen

All of this explains why the Erste Bank designed a new logo that was
scheduled to be rolled out in 2012. But this doesn’t explain why the logo
is still the red S all over Zagreb. Plus I don’t understand why a company
has to pay so much money for such a long time before deciding to pay a
designer to make a new logo.

There’s a lot more to be said about foreign banks and foreign capital in
Croatia, but I’ll save that for another time.