Since these days the shares of banks dealing in Serbia such as ‘Erste’, ‘Reiffeisen’, ‘KBC’ and ‘Societe General’ dropped in Vienna, analysts concluded that might affect their business activity in the East Europe.

In recent years these banks have purchased large number of banks in the East Europe that have become risky now due to the world economic crisis.

Dragan Kostic, consultant in business risks and crises points out that the first blow of the world crisis has been successfully survived in Serbia when people started taking their saving from banks.

‘Our banks were not involved in highly risky investments. Also the degree of timely return of credits by both enterprises and the population is impressive. In Serbia there are no elements of business dealing causing fear in the West Europe’, Dragan Kostic says.

Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Serbia Mira Erić-Jović announced yesterday at a round table organized by Ekonomist Media Group, referring to the rating report of the Moody’s Agency, that the said report didn’t even mention Serbia or a possibility of Raiffeisen Bank’s inclusion into the group of risky banks.

She said that the report was presented incorrectly in media, and that the banking sector was stable and solvent. She documented it by the fact that there were 30 percent of solvent assets in banks, i.e. more than total placed deposits.

„The capital adequacy is 23 percent, which is twice more than the minimum, and almost three times more than the European average,” she said, adding that the banking sector was profitable. She also reminded that the banking sector was based on trust, and sensationalistic and unprofessional statements could therefore have a great impact on that trust.

Deputy President of the Raiffeisen Bank Executive Board Zoran Petrovic also  announced at the Round Table organized by Ekonomist Media Group that information on Raiffeisen Bank’s bankruptcy was published in yesterday’s Kurir because the owner of Kurir was part of the ownership structure of a company that had a loan in Raiffeisen Bank and hadn’t paid its obligations for several months already.

“This is an abuse, and we were forced to collect the loan through a legislative procedure. We tried to publish a dementi, but the newspaper didn’t want to do it and we are forced to bring charges against the newspaper and the journalist who wrote the article,” Petrovic said.

Raiffeisen Bank in Serbia is very stable, which is proved by its leading position for coverage of the banking assets by capital of about half a billion Euros, Deputy President of the bank’s Executive Board Zoran Petrovic said.

After a certain withdrawal of savings deposits from banks in October last year, at the beginning of 2009 citizens’ deposits started increasing slightly, Petrovic says. “At that time citizens started withdrawing savings deposits from the entire banking sector, but Raiffeisen bank didn’t have to draw finances from the headquarters in Vienna,” he says.

Reacting to the news on a decrease of value of Raiffeisen International’s shares on Vienna Stock Exchange, and an analysis of the Moody’s agency on banks in East European markets, Petrovic said that Raiffeisen Bank in Serbia was very well capitalized, adding that the bank scored a record result in 2008.

"The report of the Moody’s agency states that countries differ for their exposure to risks, and it is true. There are big differences between Albania or Belarus, Poland and Serbia, and this also refers to the quality of their banking systems. When it comes to Serbia, the banking system is very stable, with capital adequacy of 23.3 percent, and it is very solvent also due to the large capital by which foreign banks have recapitalized their daughter-banks in our market,” Petrovic explained.

“On the other hand, sharp measures taken by the National Bank of Serbia and directed to struggle against the inflation since 2006 have proven to be very good when it comes to maintaining stability of the financial system. During the entire 2008, as well as today, due to its extremely high liquidity position, Raiffeisen Bank in Serbia was and is not only the most important creditor of industry, together with its headquarters, but also the biggest creditor in the inter-banking foreign currency and Dinar money market in Serbia,” Petrovic said.

"When it comes to capital, our bank is one of the leaders for its capital volume in the country. We hold the second place on the list of 35 banks in Serbia,” he said.