Serbia's central bank revoked the operating licence of Alta banka, owned by Davor Macura, on October 30 after its financial condition deteriorated, but the rest of the banking sector is solid,  the regulator said. 

Supervisory action aimed at forcing the bank to raise its liquidity came before the decision, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) said in a statement. The bank's financial condition had "deteriorated significantly" and could worsen further, putting depositors' interests at risk, it said. The Deposit Insurance Agency will be appointed bankruptcy administrator by the Belgrade commercial court and will enable payment of insured amounts and access to depositors’ funds within seven working days.

The closure, first reported as Alta's accounts were frozen, is Serbia's first bank failure in more than a decade and lands five days after the Student List won the October 25 election, ending 14 years of rule by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). The decision was taken by an NBS still led by Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic, a former SNS deputy leader, before any new government has been formed. Alta held only about 2.9% of sector assets at end-June, according to Raiffeisen Research, and the rest of the banking system is well capitalised and highly liquid, so the failure looks unlikely to set off a systemic crisis. It has, however, turned a spotlight on the domestically owned banks that grew fastest under the outgoing government.

Queues formed outside Alta branches in Novi Sad and Belgrade on October 31, raising fears of a systemic meltdown. Clients could not use payment cards or make payments and all branches were temporarily shut, Vreme reported. The bank had 621 staff and 66,481 clients at the end of 2025, of whom 56,390 were individuals, Vecernje novosti reported on November 1.

The NBS's four vice-governors, Zeljko Jovic, Ana Ivkovic, Dragana Stanic and Nikola Dragasevic, said they learned the bank's real condition at an emergency board session on the evening of October 30, and that it "drastically deviated" from what Alta had reported to the regulator. They asked prosecutors to examine possible criminal liability, including at the central bank itself. The NBS has filed a criminal complaint against the bank and several individuals.

The organised crime prosecutor had already asked the NBS on October 27 and October 29 for data on transfers abroad from Alta's accounts since September 27, after claims on social media that money was being moved to Moscow and Skopje, Vecernje novosti reported. North Macedonian opposition politicians alleged that more than €50mn had been sent to Alta's affiliate in Bitola. None of these claims has been verified, and the NBS statement on the licence does not mention them.

From exchange offices to a banking group

Macura started out with a currency exchange office in Belgrade's Zemun district in 2008. His Alta Pay Group bought control of the small state-owned Jubmes banka for around €5mn in 2019 and renamed it Alta banka in 2020. Its balance sheet quadrupled in three years to €1.64bn, according to a column by Bogdan Petrovic in Nova Ekonomija. Alta Pay signed a deal to collect electricity bills for state power utility EPS in November 2023 without a public tender, and the bank later took over processing of EPS payments.

Alta grew well beyond banking. Macura's group built a 30% stake in Vienna-based Addiko Bank, drawing fines from Austria's regulator for failing to disclose its holdings, and backed Raiffeisen's takeover bid on a plan that would have handed it Addiko's Serbian unit. It bought North Macedonia's Stopanska Banka Bitola and was reported to be eyeing Silk Road Bank in Skopje. In October its Alta Retail completed the purchase of Fortenova's Serbian supermarket chain Idea.

The bank's own results were weakening. Alta posted the largest absolute rise in lending of any Serbian bank in 1Q26, but its net profit fell 85% y/y to RSD140mn (€1.2mn).

On October 14 US Congressman Joe Wilson asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to sanction Macura and three other businessmen close to former president Aleksandar Vucic, alleging that Alta was "involved in the money laundering side of the business", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on October 22. Alta rejected the accusations. "No competent authority in any jurisdiction has made any finding or decision of the kind alleged against Alta Bank, Alta Pay Group or Mr Macura," a spokesperson told the broadcaster.

Supporters of the outgoing government cast the closure on social media as the first fruit of the Student List's victory. The student movement behind the Student List blamed the regulator instead. "Financial stability is not a political issue!" it said on X, adding that there were "clear indications" the situation was the result of the failure of the NBS leadership under Tabakovic to react in time. It said Alta had reported a capital adequacy ratio of 17.92% in June, more than double the legal minimum.

A sector built to take the hit

Serbia's 19 banks held €63.8bn of assets at end-August, according to the latest NBS investor presentation. The total capital adequacy ratio stood at 20.1% at end-June and the CET1 ratio at 18.6%, well above regulatory minimums. The liquidity coverage ratio was 199.4%, twice the required 100%, and the loan-to-deposit ratio for non-financial clients was 84.2%.

Asset quality is the best on record. The share of non-performing loans (NPLs) fell to 1.97% in August, down from a peak of 23.18% in May 2015, the central bank said. Banks earned pre-tax profits of €988mn in the first eight months, after €1.61bn in the whole of 2025, giving a return on equity of 18.1% and a net interest margin of 3.4%.

Serbia's banking sector at a glance. *2026 capital ratios as of end-June. Source: National Bank of Serbia.

But profits are slipping. Sector net profit fell 13.7% y/y to RSD41.1bn (€350mn) in 1Q26, and two banks, Yettel Bank and Mirabank, posted losses, according to the specialist site Bankarski monitor. Lending grew 16.3% y/y through August, fast enough for the NBS to activate a 0.5% countercyclical capital buffer from December, according to Raiffeisen Research.

Foreign-owned banks, led by Banca Intesa, OTP and Raiffeisen, hold 77.4% of sector assets, and Austrian, Italian, Hungarian and Slovenian parents stand behind most of the system. The NBS had €29.9bn of foreign currency reserves at end-September. The Association of Serbian Banks called Alta "an individual case that does not affect the operations of other banks in Serbia".

The exposed banks

The risk sits with the domestically owned and state-owned lenders. AikBank, which absorbed Eurobank Direktna in 2025 after earlier taking over Sberbank Srbija and Alfa banka, has grown 3.5-fold in five years to a €6.2bn balance sheet and is now a bank the state "cannot allow to collapse" even if it wanted to, according to Petrovic. State-owned Banka Postanska stedionica, with €5.3bn of assets, is used to finance state projects, and the quality of those loans is open to question, he wrote.

Neither has been named by the regulator, and both have reported profits. The students have called for closer monitoring of liquidity at all banks, temporary measures at any bank at risk of illiquidity, NBS liquidity support for solvent lenders and a review of large loans to related parties, as well as an explanation of why EPS moved its payment processing to Alta in July 2025.

The fallout reaches beyond the bank. Alta Retail employs more than 8,000 people at the Idea, Roda and Mercator chains, and the Sloga trade union has demanded that money earmarked for their wages be protected. In North Macedonia, Alta banka Bitola said it was liquid and operating normally.