Post of Serbia: Bank Supplied 37% of Pension Cash
Post of Serbia says Postal Savings Bank delivered 37% of the cash it requested for the November 10 payout. The bank says the money was supplied and distribution is the issue.
The dispute over cash for pensions moved from the post office counter into press releases on November 11. Post of Serbia says it received 37% of the cash it requested from Banka Postanska stedionica (Postal Savings Bank) for the November 10 payout. The bank said the same day that it delivers cash regularly and that responsibility for distributing it cannot be shifted onto the bank.
What does Post of Serbia say about the percentages?
According to the Post’s statement, the bank delivered 100% of the requested cash for pensions in August and September. For the October payout it approved 50%, and for the November 10 payout 37%. The Post concludes that the shortage of cash at post office counters is a result of this conduct:
“The current shortage of cash at post office counters is precisely the result of this conduct by Banka Postanska stedionica”
The state-owned company also explains how the flow of money is set up. It does not receive pension money directly from the National Bank of Serbia or the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, but from Postal Savings Bank, so it pays out as much as the bank provides. The Post adds that it pays pensions at more than 1,500 locations, delivers them to home addresses and pays them through a network of 150 of its own ATMs. The pace of payments, according to the statement, “directly depends on a timely and sufficient inflow of cash from the bank”.
The Post is also a shareholder in the bank. In that capacity, it called on the bank’s management to give priority to pensioners.
What does Postal Savings Bank reply?
In its statement of November 11, the bank does not dispute the percentages but shifts the emphasis. It says it regularly delivers cash to the Post and that shortages at some counters arise in the distribution of money after the Post takes it over. According to the bank, the Post’s system includes more than 1,700 payment points, which is more than the number of locations the Post itself cites. Both figures come from statements by the parties to the dispute and have not been independently verified.
The bank stresses that the Post is also its shareholder, so it expects “a special degree of institutional responsibility” from it. Its clearest formulation was this:
“Providing cash is one thing. Organizing for it to reach every payment point is another. Responsibility for one cannot justify failures in the other”
The bank also cites figures on its own network: last weekend it organized 114 ATM refills on Saturday and nine on Sunday, with technical availability of the network at 99.27%. Pensions for more than 600,000 of its clients, it says, were paid a day earlier than planned. The bank ended its complaint against the Post with these words:
“It is particularly inappropriate to direct citizens to the bank for explanations about cash availability at individual Post counters, unless it is first established at which stage of the process a possible delay occurred.”
Vucic: the budget is full, the problem is euro buying
The same day, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also spoke about pensions, from the headquarters of the Serbian Progressive Party. He said the budget is full, at around 4 billion euros, and attributed the cash shortage to purchases of large sums of euros driven by instability. He told pensioners:
“All problems for pensioners will be solved, pensioners will not suffer, neither now nor with the next pension”
Vucic added: “In 172 months, a pension has never been late by even one day.” He also addressed a claim made on October 28 on RTS by Karovic of the Student List, that someone had tried to take money out of Postal Savings Bank. The bank had earlier denied that claim.
On November 6, the National Bank of Serbia said demand for foreign currency had risen, mostly among citizens, that it is holding the exchange rate with foreign currency reserves and that it supervises the operations of Postal Savings Bank daily. In the same statement it said that “Banka Postanska stedionica duly fulfills all obligations toward its clients”.
Where can you collect a pension on Armistice Day?
Because of the public holiday on November 11, 66 duty post offices are open. The main post office at Takovska 2 in Belgrade is open from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., the post office at Nikola Tesla Airport from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the one at the Gradina crossing from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Post offices at the Cukarica, Sremska Raca, Batrovci and Horgos crossings, as well as the administrative crossings of Jarinje and Brnjak, are open 24 hours. The Post says the full list of duty branches is available on its website.
