From Balkan Insight:
The closure of a Serbian bank popular among Russian expatriates has left many unable to access their savings, disrupting everyday transactions, business operations and plans to buy new homes.
katerina moved to Serbia with her husband and two children in 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This year, they decided to stay for good. They sold their Moscow apartment and the money landed in their Serbian bank at the end of October, days after Serbia’s landmark parliamentary election. Ekaterina, who declined to give her surname, flew back to Serbia after selling the apartment, arriving on the evening of October 30. “On the morning of October 31, we learned we had lost everything,” she said. Lost, because the money had gone to their account in Alta Bank, which had its banking licence revoked on October 31. In withdrawing the licence, Serbia’s central bank cited a significant deterioration in Alta Bank’s financial condition and concerns over its liquidity.