Since the start of 2011, nearly 1.5 billion euros was transferred from banks operating in Serbia into their parent banks abroad, and of that amount, EUR 484.4 million were withdrawn in the first half of 2012, according to the statistics of the Serbian National Bank.
According to the Belgrade-based Blic daily, until 2011 money used to be poured from abroad into those banks. For instance, in 2009, EUR 1.2 million euros was transferred from parent banks into their daughter banks in Serbia, and in 2010 the sum came to EUR 660 million.
However, one billion euros was transferred from Serbia and an additional 484.4 million was taken from Serbian banks to their parent banks abroad in H1 2012.
With three quarters of banks in Serbia having their founders in Europe, those funds were transferred to European countries hit by the debt crisis, according to the daily.
The Serbian banking association's secretary Veroljub Dugalic was quoted as saying that he did not find it unusual that foreign banks withdrew money as banks operating in Serbia hardly found good customers but they had enough capital.
