Belgrade’s Alta Banka has lost its voting rights but keeps its ownership. Slaveski put it this way:
“We are taking away the voting rights of Alta Banka AD Belgrade, but the ownership right remains.”
The Serbian owner will, as announced, get a short deadline to put the shares up for sale. If it does not, the National Bank of North Macedonia will carry out the sale. The governor says four to five parties have shown interest, domestic financial institutions and buyers from abroad, but he stressed that this information is unofficial.
Alta Banka Belgrade bought Stopanska Banka AD Bitola a year ago, with the approval of the Securities Commission and the National Bank of North Macedonia. Slaveski defended the approval given at the time: the parent bank held a license then, operated normally in the Serbian financial system and met the verified conditions for buying the shares.
What happened before?
A day earlier, Alta Banka Bitola had announced that its branches and ATMs were working as usual and that clients could freely use their deposits. The Macedonian National Bank said at the time that revoking a license in Serbia does not automatically mean revoking the license in Bitola, but that it was monitoring the risks of the ownership link.
According to Slaveski, about two million euros was withdrawn from the bank by October 31 in cash and other transfers. On suspicions about transfers from Serbia to North Macedonia, the governor claimed that, according to all available data since the start of the crisis at the Belgrade bank, the inflows mentioned in public did not occur.
The National Bank of Serbia justified the license revocation by citing supervisory activities aimed at getting the bank to raise its liquidity. It found that the bank’s financial condition had deteriorated substantially and that depositors’ interests were at risk. The Deposit Insurance Agency will be appointed bankruptcy trustee by court order.
In Montenegro, meanwhile, the Council of the Central Bank revoked the authorization to provide payment services from the payment institution Alta Pay Group of Podgorica, because the conditions set by law are no longer met. The Central Bank of Montenegro says the institution is not a bank, does not take deposits and does not affect the stability of the financial system. The statement ends with this message:
“Citizens and businesses can continue to use the payment services of banks and other authorized payment service providers in Montenegro without disruption. The Central Bank will continue to inform the public responsibly, in a timely manner and transparently about all matters of importance for the security of payment operations and the stability of the financial system,” the Central Bank of Montenegro said in its statement.