The governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina said on Wednesday that commercial banks in the country were stable and that the ongoing global financial crisis had not significantly affected their performance.
However, Governor Kemal Kozaric told reporters in Sarajevo that the withdrawal of cash from commercial banks had been on the rise over the past days, which might turn out to be a problem. According to the central bank's figures, since the start of this week, Bosnians have withdrawn some KM 81 million (EUR 40 million) from their bank accounts.
Kozaric added that there had been no need for such a move, urging bank clients not to take their deposits and not to "saw off the branch on which all of us are sitting".
The central bank's foreign currency deposits amount to KM 6.53 billion and they are not exposed to any risks, the governor said, adding that the central bank was braced for the worst-case scenario on the market.