The Central Bank of Public Utilities and Housing Construction (Russian: Центральный банк коммунального хозяйства и жилищного строительства), sometimes also referred to as Central Communal Bank[1] ' or Communal Economy Bank and commonly as Tsekombank (Russian: Цекомбанк), was a significant component of the Soviet banking system from its establishment in 1925 to 1959, when it was merged with Prombank and Selkhozbank to form the Construction Bank of the USSR, known as Stroybank.[2]
The Tsekombank was established on as a joint-stock company. It operated mainly through local municipal banks, even though it also had offices of its own in Siberia and Ukraine. Like the Selkhozbank in agriculture, the Tsekombank was a mere conduit for budgetary appropriations and had no autonomy in its credit allocation. The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union resulted in further centralization of housing construction financing at the Tsekombank.[3]