Serbian companies may find credit less difficult to obtain than in many European markets, but banks are signalling that the period of broadly expanding corporate lending standards is beginning to change.
The latest banking-sector survey indicates that lenders expect to tighten corporate credit standards further during the third quarter of 2026.
This comes despite healthy business borrowing and a banking system with strong liquidity and exceptionally low levels of problem loans.
The shift therefore appears less like a reaction to financial-sector distress and more like a normalisation of risk discipline after rapid credit expansion.
Corporate lending has been growing at double-digit rates, supported by investment, real estate, construction, trade and working-capital demand. But interest rates remain meaningful. New corporate dinar loans are considerably more expensive than equivalent euro-indexed financing, while companies also face increasing labour and operating costs.
Banks are consequently becoming more selective about which borrowers receive additional leverage.
The change is likely to affect companies unevenly.
Large exporters with predictable cash flows, established collateral and strong sponsors should retain relatively easy access to financing. Companies with high leverage, weak profitability or speculative development projects may face more demanding covenants, collateral requirements and pricing.
For Serbia’s corporate sector, this could produce a healthier allocation of capital.
Very loose lending conditions can sustain marginal companies and encourage investment based more on asset appreciation than underlying cash generation. More selective credit forces businesses to demonstrate that projects can service debt under realistic assumptions.
The tightening also arrives at a time when Serbia is developing alternative financing channels. Green bonds, development-finance programmes and IFI-supported lending facilities are expanding, while larger corporations increasingly have access to international funding.
Serbia is therefore not entering a credit shortage. It is entering a more differentiated credit market.
The question for companies in late 2026 will increasingly be not whether Serbian banks have money to lend, but which projects banks consider sufficiently attractive to finance.
