In September 2008, the Serbian government undersigned a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union. This SAA is a preparatory stage that paves the way to the recognition of official candidate status and the initiation of formal accession talks. The signing had a positive impact on the Serbian financial market.

The inflation in Serbia was characterized by the increase of energy and food prices, causing the Serbian National Bank to enforce an even more restrictive monetary policy and stricter measures of supervision. Privatizations and large infrastructure projects are on the agenda for the coming year and will also draw upon the banking sector in 2009. In spite of the global economic challenges, the Serbian banking market developed in line with the expectations of the experts in the last financial year, with the banking and financial sector concentrating largely on foreign operations.

Like the banking sector, the leasing market in Serbia was also affected by the turbulences in the international financial markets. In this respect, finance leasing was more heavily hit than operate leasing.