Serbian court opens Alta Banka bankruptcy proceedings

The Commercial Court in Belgrade opened bankruptcy proceedings against Alta Banka on 3 November and activated a state mechanism to refund depositors. The ruling formalized the National Bank of Serbia’s decision the previous day to revoke the bank’s operating license, OCCRP said.

The court appointed Serbia’s Deposit Insurance Agency as bankruptcy trustee, putting it in charge of administering the proceedings. The agency said insured accounts are covered up to a legal limit of €50,000 (about $56,000).

Alleged removal of funds

Serbia’s Interior Ministry and Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime said Davor Macura was suspected of illegally extracting 45.55659625 billion Serbian dinars from the bank. Authorities detained the bank’s responsible person, whom they identified by the initials D.M. and N1 identified as Macura, and arrested 2 treasury officials.

Prosecutors allege that, before 31 October, the officials gave Macura access cards or accompanied him to let him enter the vault without authorization, and that he then removed cash. The allegations are not a finding of guilt.

The deposit insurance agency said it would begin payouts within 7 working days of its November 3 announcement and had enough money to cover all claims.