STEPIC: Growth of credit risk in Serbia is not expected

The President of Raiffeisen International, Herbert Stepic, says that the analysts of that bank do not expect the small drop in value od Dinar and mild growth of Euro to have significant influence on the growth of credit risk in Serbia.

He said in the interview for new issue of monthly magazine Bankar that the crisis that had hit the banking sector had no drastical effect on Serbian banks, and the main reason for that were the NBS's measures that limited crediting of physical persons and set high criteria for mandatory reserves.

According to his words, that group, which owns Raiffeisen Bank in Serbia, is currently experiencing the problem of excessive liquidity in all countries where it operates.

- We are ready to invest money because we can make profit only if we borrow it, but the demand is not big enough at the moment - said Stepic.

He said that he was still optimistic concerning both CEE and Serbia and that he was of the opinion that the future of banking business lay in that region.

Stepic said that Raiffeisen International was not thinking about selling either one of the branches or the headquarters.