Elimination of last administrative obstacles for arrival of Citibank and Deutsche Bank to the market of Serbia

National Bank of Serbia will, once again, after many years of moratorium, start to approve "greenfield" licenses for opening of the foreign banks in Serbia.

This was announced by the Governor of NBS, Radovan Jelasic, who confirmed that it could be American "City bank" (www.citybank.com) and "Deutsche bank" (www.db.com). He stated that NBS had already took into consideration the question of approval of Greenfield licenses and that it would probably give consent for entrance of some other foreign banks to the domestic market. Jelasic explained that such licenses would be issued by NBS only in exceptional cases and exclusively to the best foreign banks. “The State had enough time to sell its shares in the banks and it did what it planned, whereas the remaining banks, the ones that are not privatized, will be bought if they are worth something, because it is much easier than to appear on the market and start everything from the beginning”, Jelasic explained. Asked about the points the reforms in the banking sector reached on the scale from 1 to 10, Jelasic replied that the banking sector was somewhere between 8 and 9, whereas the insurance was on the point 7 and he added that “there is still much work to be done in that sector”.

- Such licenses will be issued by NBS in exceptional cases only and exclusively to the best foreign banks - said the Governor of NBS, Radovan Jelašić, and indicated that the licenses might be given to Citibank and Deutsche Bank.

(Radovan Jelašić)

Jelašić says that, on the scale from 1 to 10, the reforms in the banking sector reached the level between 8 and 9, whereas the reforms in the insurance sector got mark 7.

- The subjects with which we are dealing today in the banking sector will not be on the agenda in the real sector in the following 10 years - said Governor Jelašić.