Banking

Turkish banks and the country's banking industry are resilient and sound, the top economy official and regulators have said in separate statements.

The cost of the FX-protected deposit account (KKM) scheme on the budget continues to decline, Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati has said.

The volume of deposits under the KKM reached 2.3 billion Turkish Liras (around $120 billion), Nebati wrote on Twitter.

Almost eight out of 10 borrowers (78%) who purchased a home with a loan in 2022 chose a fixed interest rate of at least five years.

The percentage among those who chose a long-term interest rate - i.e. more than 10 years - was also high, at 63%, opting for the long-term commitment to the uncertainty created by the persistence of inflation.

The foreign exchange position of the corporate sector has improved with the liraization of their balance sheets, while the share of the Turkish Lira in households' financial balance has increased significantly, in this way financial resilience indicators of firms and households remain strong, the Central Bank's governor Şahap Kavcıoğlu has said in the bank's biannual Financial Stability Report.

BELGRADE - National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Vice Governor Zeljko Jovic said on Wednesday Serbia had registered a FDI inflow of 1.259 bln euros in the first four months of this year, or 66 pct more y-o-y.

The funds invested last year in the housing market nationwide are estimated at over 8 billion euros, highlighting the upward trend in demand but also in prices.

This amount is high considering both the fact that banks no longer finance 100% of the value of properties to be purchased, and the fact that only 20% of purchases and sales are made through bank lending.

The interest rate spread in Greece between new deposits and loans increased to 5.50 percentage points in March as the weighted average interest rate on new deposits remained almost unchanged at 0.23%, while the corresponding rate on new loans increased to 5.73%, the Bank of Greece said on Friday.

BELGRADE - Raiffeisen bank Belgrade has announced it had successfully completed a legal and operational merger of RBA bank, which began with an acquisition of a 100 pct stake in the bank - the former Credit Agricole Serbia - in April last year.

Foreign citizens and Greeks living abroad will be able to pay any tax obligations with credit and debit cards issued by foreign banks from late 2023. The Independent Authority for Public Revenue has already started the tender and soon the contractor of the project will be decided, so that by the end of 2023 those holding foreign cards will be able to make payments to the state.

Banks are expecting a decrease in demand for business loans, especially from small and medium-sized enterprises, in the second quarter of the year, as a result of the rise in interest rates and the increase in the cost of money, which discourages borrowing.