Serbian banking market, according to estimates, worth 21 billion EUR - Banca Intesa leader

According to the research of Erste Bank, banking market of Serbia is still in fragments, while 5 largest banks hold only 44% of the balance assets. Raiffeisen Bank lost its leading position on Serbian market. It has been replaced by Banca Intesa on that position, which has market share of 11%.

According to Erste Bank’s report based on the national statistics, the third is Hypo Alpe-Adria bank with the share of 9.2%, and it is followed by Komercijalna banka with 8.4% and Eurobank EFG with the share of 5.3% in the balance assets.

The largest progress in 2007 was registered by AIK bank, which increased its share in market from 3 to 4.8. Analysts estimate that AIK bank went up on the list of the largest banks according to their shares in the market from the 11th place in 2006 to the 6th in 2007.

Almost all leading players in Serbian banking sector are majority owned by some foreign bank, while the small players belong to the state.

In the third quarter of the last year, balance assets of the banking market of Serbia reached value of 21 billion EUR and it was the fourth largest market in southeast Europe.

In the period between the beginning of year 2007 and the third quarter of that year, the loan on Serbian market grew by 39%, mainly thanks to the growth of loans approved to population by over 50%.