In his comment for Dnevne Novine daily, the President of the Board of Directors of the Association of Banks of Montenegro, Mr. Esad Zaimović said banking competition in Montenegro is already very pronounced, with six large banks operating with huge assets, which in his mind means monopoly is not easily reachable.
Mr. Zaimovic, who is also the executive director of Hipotekarna banka, estimated that the speculated merger of Societe Generale bank in Montenegro with the CKB bank – should it materialise – would not have any negative consequences for the banking system overall.
“While there are opinions that the merger of two big banks could result in significant concentration with a negative effect, my personal opinion is that the Central Bank, as a regulator in the banking market, has powers and abilities to counteract these consequences and sanction possible monopolistic behavior”.
Mr. Zaimović also emphasized that banks’ results at the end of last year show that the banking system in Montenegro is stable.
“Out of a total of 15 banks, 12 operated positively with a total profit of over 38 million euros, while three banks operated with a loss in the total amount of 3.2 million euros. The total assets of the banking sector are constantly increasing and last year amounted to almost 4.2 billion euros. Deposit growth is noticeable, credit activity can be assessed as satisfactory, the level of bad loans is reduced, and interest rates are on the historical minimum, with the possibility of additional reduction”, Mr. Zaimovic concluded.
