The banking market in Serbia is stable, liquid and capitalized, and I do not expect an increase in non-performing loans, says the Secretary General of the Association of Banks, Vladimir Vasic, on the occasion of the Bundesbank’s warning that banks are now hit by the corona virus.
Vasic told Tanjug that the state allocated a significant amount of funds to prevent the financial crisis due to Covid 19, which disrupted the whole world.
The speed of finding the vaccine will significantly affect further expectations. For now, the banking market is stable, liquid and capitalized. We are monitoring the development of the situation, says Vasic when asked about the warnings of the Bundesbank.
He stated that the National Bank of Serbia, as well as all other central banks, took measures to avoid a blow to the banks and to slow down the decline in economic activity.
I am sure that all measures affect the fact that, even if there is an increase in non-performing loans, that growth will be small, said Vasic.
He stated that the level of non-performing loans in 2015 was higher than 20 percent, and that the latest data show that it is currently 3.5 or 3.6 percent, which, he says, is very low.
We are the leader in the region in that area. Everywhere, the level of non-performing loans is between 10 and 15 percent. Even if there is an increase in non-performing loans, it will be very small. All measures taken are aimed at preventing the growth of non-performing loans, Vasic said.
It was explained that next June, it will be known how much the level of non-performing loans will increase, when the guarantee scheme expires, and noted that he is sure that there will not be a large increase in non-performing loans due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic.
Vasic says that the credit activity of the population is growing by an average of between seven and eight percent, and the economy by about 10 percent.
Loans are taken, which is good for the economy. The two moratorium on loan repayment, the state guarantee scheme which includes assistance to micro, small and medium enterprises, are all elements that give stability to the financial sector, says Vasic.
He stated that for a year and a half now, two to three banks in Serbia have been offering the possibility of opening an account and obtaining a smaller loan “at a distance”, and that two to three are in the process of obtaining NBS approval to start that procedure.
None of the countries from the former Yugoslavia has that functionality to us, said Vasic and stated that in the last few months more has been done in the process of digitalization of the banking sector than in the last two or three years.
He says that the banking sector in a state of emergency has proven that it can work remotely, that clients have become digitally literate and have started to use mobile and electronic banking more.
When we had a state of emergency and the inability to go to the branches, more than 350 clients received a remote loan and opened a remote account, says Vasic.
He noted that not only e-banking has experienced a real boom, but also online shopping.
He stated that in some companies, sales jumped by 500 percent, and that the bank was behind every “purchase from the armchair”, ie digital service.
Vasic also said that the largest number of banks is included in the IPS QR payment system, which enables users to fulfill their obligations faster.
People are beginning to understand the advantages of such a payment, which is the present and the future, Vasic said, Dnevnik reports.
