Serbia, Albania loans

UPDATE 1-Serbia's bad loans rise, central bank not worried

reuters

Wed Nov 17, 2010 1:05pm GMT
* Bad loans up to 17.9 percent from 17.5 percent
* Number among the worst among ex-Communist countries
BELGRADE, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Serbian central bank vice governor Bojan Markovic said he was not worried bad loans had continued to rise in the third quarter, in a market dominated by foreign banks.
Serbia's level of loans overdue more than 90 days rose to 17.9 percent in the third quarter, from 17.5 percent, he said.
The numbers, among the highest in emerging Europe apart from crisis-ridden Ukraine, were the highest since Western banks entered Serbia over the past decade.
"We are not concerned with this figure," Markovic said, adding the growth of non-performing loans was due to a fall in approved loans.
"The capital adequacy index at banks in Serbia is above 20 percent and the NPLs (non-performaing loans) are covered by 130 percent, which means that for every dinar in NPL the banks have allocated 1.30 dinars from their reserves."
Serbia and Montenegro have experienced the highest level of non-performing loans in the emerging Balkans. In Serbia, many lenders took out loans in euros or Swiss francs and were hurt as the national dinar currency devalued over the past two years.
Part of the rump Yugoslavia until 2006, Montenegro does not have this currency risk as it has unilaterally adopted the euro.
Key players in Serbia include Italian lenders Banca Intesa (ISP.MI) and Unicredit (CRDI.MI), Austrian banks Raiffeisen RIBH.VI and Erste Group Bank (ERST.VI), French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA), and Greek group Alpha Bank (ACBr.AT).
The central bank's monthly inflation report on Wednesday said bank lending growth slowed in the third quarter when more loans were geared toward investment rather than liquidity needs.
"Reflecting movements in economic activity, lending slowed down in Q3, posting real growth of 2.9 percent compared with 5 percent in Q2," the report said. "Broken down by sector, household lending rose 4.0 percent in real terms, while corporate lending went up by 2.4 percent as a result of a sharper deceleration in growth."
"Though corporate lending slowed in Q3, for the first time in two years investment loans outpaced liquidity loans in terms of their quarterly rise. Such an increase in investment loans may be seen as a harbinger of an investment upturn." (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Writing by Adam Tanner; Editing by Dan Lalor)

reuters

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE6AG0XR20101117

Albanian bad loans rise to 13.51 pct in Q3 2010

reuters

TIRANA Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:25pm GMT
TIRANA Nov 10 (Reuters) - Non-performing loans at Albanian banks rose to 13.51 percent of total lending in the third quarter, compared to 12 percent the previous quarter, figures from the central bank showed on Wednesday.
The amount of bad loans in the third quarter of 2010 is the highest since the second quarter of 2001. Bad loans have risen since the last quarter of 2008, when the global financial crisis hit. However, banks are healthy and liquid, the bank said. (Reporting by Benet Koleka; Editing by Adam Tanner)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE6A91EK20101110?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a54:g12:r1:c0.331073:b39582502:z3