Serbian Banks' Jan-Sept Pre-tax Profit Halves

Their nine-month pre-tax profit was 54.3% lower on the year, Serbia’s central bank, NBS, said in a statement posted on its website.

Assets held by the country’s 34 banks totalled 1.96 trillion dinars at the end of September, which is a 5.6% increase from the second quarter, the statement said. Their assets grew by 10.5% since end-December 2008.

The banks’ combined loan portfolio totalled 1.2 trillion dinars at the end of September, the statement added.

The only bank whose market share in terms of assets exceeded 10% at the end of September was the Serbian unit of Italy’s Banca Intesa, whose market share totalled 14.83%.

(1 euro=95.9120 Serbian dinars)