Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) has made an offer to take over the Slovenian subsidiary of the Russian bank Sberbank, Slovenian media said on Tuesday citing unofficial sources.

That way, all Sberbank offices could resume unrestricted operations for about 45,000 of its clients in Slovenia as of Wednesday and the activation of a deposit guarantee scheme would not be necessary, the business newspaper Finance and public radio said.

The deposit guarantee scheme protects deposits of up to €100,000 in the event of a bank’s liquidation. The price offered by NLB is not known, and official confirmation of the takeover is pending from the bank and the regulator. Sberbank’s services have been unavailable since Monday morning, and cash withdrawals have been limited to €400 a day.

Media say that several political parties have called for a quick solution to be found for Sberbank given that they hold accounts with the bank which they use to monitor campaign costs ahead of the parliamentary election scheduled for 24 April.