Baština (Jan 2017)
The Bank of Novi Pazar between the two World Wars
Abstract
With liberation of Old Serbia from the Ottoman occupation and joining with Kingdom of Serbia, economy life of liberated areas went into different directions. One of the economic characteristics of Serbia was a great number of local crediting institutes with small capital, which, in places where they worked, enabled businessmen to come to a certain sum of much needed loans. The Bank of Novi Pazar was founded in 1913, beginning with work in the first half of 1914, but soon had to stop it, due to outbreak of the First World War. During the war, the bank of Novi Pazar suffered a number of human and material losses, which together with new economic circumstances after the war, prevented its sooner operating. Successful management of the Bank began in 1922 and it was operating up to the banking crisis in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1931. Although the Bank of Novi Pazar on two occasions increased its capital, its amount up to the 500.000 dinars rated this bank in the group of banks with the smallest capital in the country. However, owing to the needs of businessmen from a passive region, as well as high interests, the Bank of Novi Pazar brought its shareholders a satisfactory income all the time. Although the Bank of Novi Pazar was founded by Serbs from the Raška region, the Jews from Novi Pazar became in time its greatest shareholders. During the whole period of its operating, the Bank exclusively dealt with banking transactions, out of which granting loans to clients' loans on bills was dominant. After the outbreak of banking crisis in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Bank of Novi Pazar, like most of the other banks, could not operate successfully.
