Today the payment of deposits secured for Alta Bank clients has begun. The arrest of its owner, Davor Macura, allegedly extracted some 380m euros from the bank, has raised the issue of supervision of banking activity, while the closure of this financial institution has particularly hit the Russian community in Serbia.

The Poštanska Çstedionica bank, from Friday, November 13th, has started paying off deposits provided to the clients of the Alta Bank, which the People’s Bank of Serbia has revoted the operating license. Citizens from today can set the term through the Poštanska Çtedionica portal, which carries out payments on behalf of the Agency for Deposit Insurance.

Physical, entrepreneurs, and legal, micro, small, and medium – size individuals have the right to pay. Clients who have had larger sums in the bank will have to wait for bankruptcy procedure to realise their financial requirements that are not covered by insurance.

WRITER IN T HESAR ADHE THE FALSIPH fat?

We remember that the Prosecutor for Organised Crime has announced that Davor Macura, owner of Alta Banka and one of Aleksandar Vuciqi’s closest associates, has been arrested on November 2nd, under suspicion that he issued about 383m euros from this bank. The arrest occurred three days after the People’s Bank of Serbia revoted Alta Bank’s license.

The prosecution has banned Macura and several companies owned by him from possessing their wealth.

Belgrade weekly journalist and editor-in-chief Rhadarić, Milan ãoulibrick, in a statement for N1, has described the case as a scandal that, according to him, has never been marked in the history of banking activity.

There are indications that in Alta Bank treasures there were forged bills to falsely present cash that were never really there, said {ulibrk.

However, the Prosecutor for Organised Crime has announced that false bills have not been listed during the audits thus far.

According to information published by Rhadarão, the real state of cash in the treasury has been checked, comparing it with bank documentation, while additional checks will be conducted if allegations of counterfeiting arise.

ãoulibrick considers that responsibility cannot be seen only through the actions of bank executives, but the issue of supervision by the People’s Bank of Serbia must also be contained.

Serbia’s People’s Bank has been telling them that half a billion euros were kept in their treasures. When one collects money from citizens and companies, it pays for it twice as much interest as other banks and keeps that money in the treasury, then all alarms should be turned on, he has declared APUulubk.

The People’s Bank of Serbia has announced that through control activities it has found a significant deterioration of the Alta Bank financial situation.

The competent organs are continuing their investigation into the bank’s activities.

GOVERNMENT TRI, RUSSIAS

Alta Banka was one of the few financial institutions in Serbia where, after imposing Western sanctions on the Russian Federation due to aggression against Ukraine in 2022, Russian citizens, as physical and legal persons, could open bank accounts.

The bank’s closure has also hit Russian businessmen.

According to data from a commercial business database in which Free Radio Europe has had access, Russian citizens have established more than 22 thousand businesses in Serbia from February 2022 to November 2026, of which are currently active 12.271.

More than 10,000 of them are individual businesses, while about 6,500 registered companies, whose owners are Russian citizens, have at least one open account at Alta Bank.

Over the past few years, Russian citizens have faced difficulties in opening accounts at several banks in Serbia, due to increased controls related to international sanctions, regulations on money laundering and bank risk assessments.

An additional obstacle has been the expulsion of about ten largest Russian banks from the international SW payment system The IFT, through various packages of European Union sanctions, imposed between 2022 and 2023.

According to data from the 2025 Republic Statistics Ent, more than 53 thousand Russian citizens remain legally in Serbia, who were displaced in greater numbers after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Tamara Nikchev is RTK associate, covering topics from region.

 

 

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Source Layer: RTKLive