Banks in Serbia recorded a record net profit of EUR 1.44 billion last year, marking a 40% increase compared to 2022, Danas reports.This result was achieved despite the interest rate limitation on housing loans introduced by the National Bank of Serbia in September, which was estimated to affect the banking sector’s profits by 10%. The highest profit in 2023 was made by the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank, which integrated Credit Agricole Bank in Serbia during the last year. This bank earned EUR 182 million, more than doubling its net profit compared to 2022, when it earned EUR 82.6 million. Intesa was the second most profitable last year, with EUR 179.4 million, EUR 70 million more than the previous year. Last year’s third most profitable bank was another Italian bank, UniCredit, which more than doubled its profit from EUR 71.4 million in 2022 to EUR 157 million in 2023. Furthermore, Hungarian OTP Bank, with EUR 142.8 million, and NLB Komercijalna Banka, with EUR 128.4 million, were among the banks with the highest profits, both achieving around EUR 50 million better results than the previous year. Interest was the primary source of income last year. While net interest income amounted to EUR 1.25 billion in 2022, it increased to EUR 1.94 billion last year. According to Danas, from fees and commissions, banks earned a net amount of EUR 660 million in 2023, compared to EUR 573.3 million the year before.
