Crowds at Bitola bank branches after Alta Bank stops serving clients

Queues in front of Alta Bank in Bitola have disappeared, but the crowd has shifted to branches of other banks across the city as customers — especially pensioners — race to open new transaction accounts and move their salaries and pensions. Dozens are waiting outside many branches, and at some counters the wait can reach an hour.

Opening a new account to receive a salary is straightforward: an employee opens a transaction account and the client notifies their employer so that salary payments are directed to the new account from the next month. For pensioners the procedure is more complicated: they can open an account in another bank, but to transfer the pension they are asked to present a statement from Alta Bank to the new bank.

“How are we supposed to get a confirmation or statement that we're leaving 'Alta Bank', when since yesterday, 2 November, it has not been working with clients? In other banks they tell us to submit the confirmation by the 20th of the month, otherwise the pension may be delayed,” said concerned Bitolans.

Regulatory moves and cash limits

The problem began after the National Bank of Serbia revoked the operating licence of Alta Bank AD Belgrade on 31 October; that bank is the owner of the unit in Bitola. The regulator said the Serbian bank had shown a substantial deterioration in its financial position and posed a risk to depositors' interests.

Following that development, the National Bank of North Macedonia placed the Bitola unit under temporary administration and imposed a weekly limit of 10,000 denars for card payments and withdrawals. The restriction further unsettled customers who were due to receive salaries and pensions at the start of November and found they could not freely access their funds.

“For those of us who don't have an overdraft limit, it is far from any sound logic to remain trapped in a bank when we want to transfer our own money to another,” said pensioners from Bitola.

The central bank announced that pensioners who receive their pension through Alta Bank but do not have payment cards will be able to withdraw up to 20,000 denars in a single cash payment at a counter. Of the total 11,500 pensioners who get their pension via the bank, roughly 3,500 do not have payment cards.

Before publication, the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund had not responded to requests about what steps pensioners should take to transfer their pensions to another bank and avoid payment delays.

By Zh. Zdravkovska

Photo: SDK.MK)