Professor Aleksandar Živković, a member of the Board of Directors of Alta Bank, on whose account three million households in Serbia will pay their electricity bills in the future, has direct connections with the governor of the National Bank of Serbia, Jorgovanka Tabaković, "Vreme" reveals. And that's not all
If you want to see who is behind a bank, just look at the list of people who sit on its Board of Directors.
This is the advice that any good banker will give you, when asked about the work of any bank in the world, not only in Serbia.
Excellent advice and an answer to the question - which bank is the bank into which huge commission money will flow from this month, because more than three million households in Serbia will pay bills for the electricity consumed in households on its account. It also helps in answering the question - where did the state enterprise EPS entrust this work to a private bank - and to a young one that originated from the business of exchange offices - in addition to the active state Post Office Savings Bank, and at the same time gave up direct collection at the counters of the state - which took place without a commission.
In addition to Davor Matsura, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alta Bank, "Vreme" already wrote about whose dizzying rise, the second member of the Board of Directors is an economic expert after all.
It is about Dr. Aleksandar Živković, a professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, who in his academic career mainly dealt with the areas of monetary policy and banking.
Nice influence trading
Thus, he was qualified to be in the defense committee for the doctoral thesis of a specific student - the governor of the National Bank of Serbia, Jorgovanka Tabaković. At least 20 percent of this PhD is plagiarism, established in 2016 by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS).
The governor has a doctorate. defended in 2011 at the private Faculty of Service Business, Educons University from Sremska Kamenica. Educons delayed sending a copy of the dissertation to CINS for two years.
Professor Živković had direct dealings with the governor again - when she had to approve his appointment to the Board of Directors of Alta banka.
Because, according to the Serbian Law on Banks, the approval for the appointment or dismissal of the board of directors of any bank is signed by the governor of the NBS himself.
Tako Article 72 of the Banking Law says that "the bank submits a request to the National Bank of Serbia for granting prior approval for the appointment of a member of the bank's management board". It is interesting that the governor can also reject the request or, by her own decision, dismiss a member of the Board of Directors of a bank in the country if "he does not have a good business reputation", according to the same article of the law.
"It's a nice thing to call influence trading," an expert in the country's banking sector commented on this relationship for "Vreme" and added:
"In the civilized world, it is a golden rule that if you are in the management of a bank, and the regulator (in this case NBS) puts you on the black list - the door to all financial institutions in the country is closed to you."
An honest banker doesn't get involved in that.
For this very reason, the NBS should thoroughly check the history of candidates for membership in the management boards, so not just anyone can sit in these chairs.
"When you say that you are on the Board of Directors of a bank, it is a big deal in the world. Because the moral moves, not only the financial ones, of the candidate are checked in detail. Now, the fact that our morals are in a bigger cup - that is the biggest problem," says the banking expert.
As a rule, the members of the bank's board of directors are independent from the bank itself, but they bear great responsibility because, according to the same Law on Banks, Article 41, they are liable with their entire assets for the damage that occurs.
"That's why an honest banker won't engage in such actions, when he sees who owns the bank. Just answer the call politely, thank you very much, I'll think about it, I'll consult with the family and then, again very politely, refuse after three days," says the newsroom source.
Who owns the bank?
The owner of the bank, Davor Macura, got a big job when EPS sent the citizens of Serbia an invoice from Alta for the payment of electricity debts.
At the beginning of November 2023, Matsura concluded a strategic partnership agreement with EPS and then became an intermediary in the electronic payment of electricity bills on the website of the public company, as well as in the "Bill Insight" application. That deal was concluded without any public procurement or tender.
It is not the first time that companies operating within the Alta Group participate in a project related to the state and the public sector. In the summer of 2024, that company won a tender for financial services for the collection of transportation in Belgrade.
The Alta Group also received incentives from the state for the construction, reconstruction and expansion of a hotel in Belgrade for the needs of the EXPO 2027 exhibition, and the bank's counters are also located in police stations.
Macura is the owner of Alta Pay Group and the chairman of the Board of Directors of Alta banka, and there are 15 companies in Serbia.
His business grew very quickly since the Serbian Progressive Party was in power, and the best example of this is Alta Banka, which in 2023 achieved even 22 times greater growth than in 2022.
According to BIRN's research, Macura, through his company "Danica Park", was the owner of two plots that are now owned by Nikola Petrović, the godfather of Aleksandar Vučić. They also wrote that the same company was the investor of buildings that are still being built on the land of Zvonko Veselinović's wife and on the land of Milan Radojičić and his wife Emma.
Five days before the elections, Siniša Mali said that an agreement had been signed regarding the sale of NIS. The MOL immediately denied it, and Malog's office told "Vreme" that "everything is clear".
Siniša Mali claims that the Hungarian MOL signed the contract on the sale of NIS. What does the identity card of this Hungarian giant say? What kind of company is MOL?
The Hungarian company MOL has signed an agreement to take over the majority Russian share in the Serbian Oil Industry, Siniša Mali told Bloomberg. What kind of customer is MOL?
The first pipes through which American gas should flow have arrived in Serbia. The whole project dragged on for years, only to suddenly heat up with an accelerated process this year. The EU is not enthusiastic about the American partners for Serbia either
Highly qualified workers are also leaving EPS in increasing numbers, while problems are piling up in the company: profits were partly achieved thanks to the postponement of necessary investments, while the production of coal and electricity fell
There is, literally, no difference between the one who claims it is day in the middle of the night, or the one who claims to be a giraffe, from the claims we read on billboards: that Vučić is working to unify Serbs and that Serbia is doing better and better day by day.
The pre-election arrests due to the alleged "overthrow of the state" testify to the regime's panic. The bad news for them is - they can't arrest the whole people who decided to defend themselves from progressive beatings and election theft
The ring that tightens around Ćaciland Student list is getting narrower. Because there are more and more spoiled people who see the false prophet for what he is: a street obscener who is fighting Serbia
The archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
