Pošta Srbije Says Poštanska Štedionica Sent Only 37% of Pension Cash
The state postal service blames the state bank for cash shortages at counters on pension day. The bank says it has the money and points at Pošta's distribution.
Serbia's state postal service, Pošta Srbije, said on Wednesday, 11 November, that Banka Poštanska Štedionica supplied only 37% of the cash it requested for the pension payout on 10 November. The bank, which is also state-owned and in which Pošta is a shareholder, rejected the claim that it is to blame for empty counters and said it supplies cash regularly.
What Pošta Srbije says
According to Pošta, the bank delivered the full amount it asked for in August and September, approved 50% for the October payout and 37% this month. Pošta pays pensions at more than 1,500 locations, delivers them to homes in remote areas and runs about 150 ATMs. It said the speed of payouts depends directly on timely and sufficient cash from the bank, rejected suggestions that it mismanages money once it receives it, and asked the bank's decision-makers to make pensioners' access to their money a priority. Whether 37% can cover demand, it said, was for the public to judge.
What Poštanska Štedionica says
In its own statement the bank said it has never run short of cash for its own network and that delivering cash is only half of the process; getting it to every payout point is Pošta's job. It said it had carried out 114 ATM refills on Saturday and nine on Sunday, with technical availability of its network at 99.27%. It asked Pošta, as a partner and shareholder, to be careful in public statements, and said customers should not be sent to the bank over problems at specific counters before the cause of a delay is established.
Why it matters now
The dispute comes at a heavy time for Poštanska Štedionica. The bank is the paying agent for insured deposits at the bankrupt Alta Banka, with payouts due to start on 13 November, and it has just paused new applications for state-guaranteed youth housing loans after reaching its quota. Neither the caretaker Finance Ministry nor the National Bank of Serbia had commented on the cash dispute by Wednesday evening. Pensioners who could not collect cash on 10 November can still draw their pensions at post offices and ATMs as supplies arrive.
Sources
This report is written by The Serbian Review from the sources listed above; facts are attributed where they could not be independently verified. Spotted an error? See our Corrections Policy.
