Bank Profits Put Them Among Serbia's Top 100 Companies

National Bank of Serbia (BetaPhoto/Ana Slovic)

The results of Serbia's financial sector in 2025 and 2026 show that global turbulence has not seriously disrupted the operations of the country’s leading financial players, according to the latest edition of Finance Top 2025/26, published by the economic monthly Business and Finance.

This is particularly true of banks, which posted a record profit of around EUR1.4 billion in 2025. Return on equity stood at 17.3 percent, up 40 basis points year-on-year, while the profitability indicator increased by more than 10 percentage points compared with 2021.

The dominance of the banking sector across the national financial market is best illustrated by the fact that 16 of the country's 19 banks recorded profits exceeding one billion dinars last year.  With earnings at that level, they would rank among Serbia's 100 largest companies by profit.

Banca Intesa posted the highest profit, at RSD31 billion, followed by Raiffeisen Bank and UniCredit Bank, with RSD29.1 billion and RSD23.2 billion respectively. These banks, which have ranked among the leaders of Serbia's banking sector for years, achieved returns on equity of more than 20 percent. Last year, eight banks accounted for 87 percent of the total market, while each of the remaining banks held a share of less than three percent.

At the same time, shareholders continue to pressure banks to further boost results that are probably already close to the ceiling, given the available capacity of Serbia's economy and its citizens, the Finance Top said.