Alpha Bank’s presence in Serbia dates back to 2002. The turning point for the expansion of its activities in the country was 2005, when it acquired Jubanka, the country’s seventh largest bank, which was renamed Alpha Bank Beograd and later Alpha Bank Srbija.
During 2008 we continued with the implementation of an extensive programme involving the renovation or relocation of most of the Branches and Head Divisions of Alpha Bank Srbija, while at the same time expanding our local network by establishing 32 new Branches. The Bank’s network now comprises a total of 167 Branches.
In the framework of its rapid growth in 2008, the Bank upgraded its technological infrastructure and enhanced the security of its information systems. Of particular importance is the completion of the installation of systems to optimise activities such as handling domestic transactions, debiting payroll accounts, processing online banking orders etc.
Business volumes continued to increase during 2008, with growth rates exceeding those of the market. In particular, loan balances grew by 40%, against a growth rate of 19% for the market. The significant share of the domestic market for loans that the Bank holds in Serbia, which currently stands at 6.7%, up one percentage point from the previous year, keeps the Bank among the top market players. It is worth pointing out that these increases in volumes were achieved while at the same time maintaining the excellent quality of the loan portfolio, always in line with the Bank’s uniform risk management policy, with non-performing loans amounting to Euro 26 million out of a total portfolio value of Euro 826 million.
The key aim of the Bank is to pursue its dynamic growth in all sectors of financial products and services. This will be achieved by creating more synergies between retail banking and medium and large corporate banking, and by expanding its activities into leasing, factoring, asset management, insurance agent operations and fund transfers. In order to exploit the opportunities opened up by the rapidly growing real estate market in Serbia, a local subsidiary, Alpha Real Estate, was established in August 2006.
