Banks in Macedonia

Considering the size of the country, it could be said that there is quite a high number of banks that operate on the Macedonian market. Fifteen banks are offering their financial services to approximately 2 million citizens. So, in case you are searching for a bank in the country, below is a list of all Macedonian banks, given in alphabetical order.

National Bank Macedonia

The Banks in Macedonia are some of the most successful companies operating on the domestic free market, and their line of products grows every year in sync with western standards. Most, if not all of the employees speak English, and there is hardly a more polite, friendly and professional sector currently operating in the country.

ATM and Branch network

More or less, all of the Banks in Macedonia have a widely spread network of ATMs and Branches throughout the entire country. ATMs are located in every Branch itself, in the shopping malls, on gas stations, different shops in and outside the city center. Visa and MasterCard are both widely used by the Macedonian Banks and American Express is also offered by SilkRoad Bank.

The currency that could be withdrawn from the ATMs is Macedonian Denar whereas ProCredit Bank is the only bank on the Macedonian market that enables the possibility for withdrawing Euros.

Knowing the zip codes and postal info will definitely help you in dealing with banks, though you can count on friendly personnel to help you too. At the end of this guide, we talk more about our locator tool with the help of which you will be able to find most of the ATMs in the capital, as well as some of the exchange offices, or ATMs in other cities.

Do note that tourist attractions like Canyon Matka usually don’t have ATMs or exchange offices nearby, so if you like to pay with cash it is important to get everything ready while still in urban areas. All Macedonian shops and restaurants, however, accept credit and debit cards, and even though against the law most venues would accept foreign currency in cash as well.

List of Macedonian banks

Nlb Bank Macedonia

All of the Macedonian banks can be easily found within the capital city Skopje, where several branches exist for each. The most successful from the list are to be found in almost every city around the country, and they have dozens of branches within the capital.

If you are looking for a dense network of ATMs and offices, Stopanska Banka AD Skopje, NLB Banka AD Skopje and Komercijalna Banka AD Skopjeare the safest bet (with the first two being widely dispersed both in terms of offices as well as ATMs).

So here is list of all the banks in Macedonia:

  • Capital Bankа AD Skopje
  • Centralna Kooperativna Bankа AD Skopje
  • Eurostandard Bankа AD Skopje
  • Halk Bankа AD Skopje
  • Capital Banka AD Skopje
  • Komercijalna Banka AD Skopje
  • NLB Banka AD Skopje
  • Ohridska Bankа AD Skopje
  • ProCredit Bank AD Skopje
  • Silk Road Bank AD Skopje
  • Sparkasse Bankа Macedonia AD Skopje
  • Stopanska Banka AD Skopje
  • Stopanska Banка AD Bitola
  • TTK Bankа AD Skopje
  • Univerzalna Investiciona (UNI) Bankа AD Skopje

Capital Bankа AD Skopje

Capital Bankа AD Skopje has been on the market since 2007 when the Bulgarian Alpha Finance Holding bought Internacionalna Privatna Banka AD Skopje and changed its name to Capital Banka. Internacionalna Privatna Banka was founded in 1996 as a first Macedonian Bank with foreign capital.

Centralna Kooperativna Bankа AD Skopje

Centralna Kooperativna Bankа AD Skopje operates on the market under this name as of 2008, when the Bulgarian Centralna Kooperativne Banka AD Sofia bought the shares of Sileks Banka. In 2011, Starter Banka AD Kumanovo merged to Centralna Koopertivna Banka.

Eurostandard Bankа AD Skopje

Eurostandard Bankа AD Skopje was founded in 2001. Its shares are in ownership of the Swiss Gofi Group of Finance and Investments SA and E.H.H. Eastern Hemishere Holding SA. In 2014, Eurostandards became an owner of all the shares of Poshtenska Banka, whose origins date back to 1921, when Poshtenska Shtedilnica was founded.

Halk Bankа AD Skopje

Halk Bankа AD Skopje was founded in 1993 under the name Izvozno Kreditna Banka. In 2011, the Bank changed its name and became a part of the Turkish Halk Bank group.

Komercijalna Banka AD Skopje

Komercijalna Banka AD Skopje – established in 1955, it is one of the oldest Macedonian Banks. Although it has changed the name several times through the years, it remained on the Macedonian market, and currently it is one of the largest banks in Macedonia. It is worth mentioning that it was the first bank to introduce the current accounts.

NLB Banka AD Skopje

NLB Banka AD Skopje – The bank was established in 1985 as an internal bank for the tobacco industry. In 1993 it was registered as a commercial bank and it was renamed into Tutunska Banka, a name which is still widely used among Macedonian citizens. Since 2000, it is part of the Slovenian NLB group.

Ohridska Bankа AD Skopje

Ohridska Bankа AD Skopje – it is also one of the oldest Banks in Macedonia, set up in 1944 as Makedonska stopanska banka. The name Ohridska Banka dates as of 1995 and in 2007, 70% of the shares were bought by the French Societe General. In February 2019, Societe General sold its part of the shares to the Austrian Steiermärkische Sparkasse and at the moment, it is in process of taking over.

ProCredit Bank AD Skopje

ProCredit Bank AD Skopje started its operations in 2003. It is owned by the German ProCredit Holding. The Bank is oriented towards business clients and their main targets are small and medium enterprises.

Silk Road Bank AD Skopje

Silk Road Bank AD Skopje was founded in 1993 under the name Kreditna Banka AD Skopje. In 2000 it was bought by the Greek Alpha Bank and it operated as part of this group until 2016, when it was sold to the Swiss investment fund, Silk Road Capital AG.

Sparkasse Bankа Macedonia AD Skopje

Sparkasse Bankа Macedonia AD Skopje is another Macedonian bank. Here, 70% of the shares are owned by the Austrian Steiermärkische Sparkasse. The remaining 25% of shares are in the ownership of Erste Bank. Before becoming a part of the Steiermärkische Sparkasse, the Bank was known under the name Invest Banka, which was established in 1992.

Stopanska Banka AD Skopje

Stopanska Banka AD Skopje – Founded in 1944, it is the first Macedonian bank and it has laid the foundations of the Macedonian banking industry. In 2000, the package of controlling shares was bought by The National Bank of Greece. At the moment, the Bank has the largest deposit, as well as loan portfolio.

Stopanska Banка AD Bitola

This bank operates since 1995, as one of the 5 Branches of Stopanska Banka AD Skopje that fulfilled the conditions to become a Bank that can operate independently. The remaining 4 were Tetovska Banka (please refer to TTK Banka), Ohridska Banka (mentioned above), Komercijalno investiciska Banka AD Kumanovo and Pelagoniska Banka AD Prilep. These Branches became Banks in 1995 as a result of the process of restoration of the Macedonian Banking system after its independence from SFRJ.

TTK Bankа AD Skopje

TTK Bankа AD Skopje exists on the Macedonian financial market under this name as of 2006, when Teteks-Kreditna Banka AD Skopje and Tetovska Banka AD Tetovo merged. One of the precursors, Teteks-Kredit Banka dates back in 2001, when Teteks Banka AD Skopje and Kreditna Banka AD Bitola (both founded in 1993) merged. The other precursor, Tetovska Banka exists since 1995.

Univerzalna Investiciona (UNI) Bankа AD Skopje

Univerzalna Investiciona (UNI) Bankа AD Skopje dates back to 1993, when Balkanska Banka was opened, as one of the first banks in independent Macedonia. 10 years later, in 2003, with the change of the ownership structure, the Bank changed its name as well and it became UNI Banka.

Besides the abovementioned commercial Banks, there is one development Bank that exists on the market and that is Macedonian Bank for Development Promotion. The aim of this Bank is to support the development of small and medium enterprises and to promote export. This Bank is established in 1998 and it is owned by the Republic of Macedonia. The product offered by this development Bank is available to the customers through the intermediary commercial Banks.

The legal framework of Macedonian banking

All of the Macedonian Banks have been granted a work permit by the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia. The National Bank has established a legal framework that regulates the operations of the Banks in Macedonia and it supervises whether they are managed in line with the provided standards and guidelines.

The legal framework referring to the banking industry consists of the Law on the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia, Banking Law, Law on foreign exchange operations, Law on payment operations, Law on Macedonian Bank for Development Promotion and Law on providing fast money transfers. In addition to these laws, there is a number of decisions and manuals developed by the National Bank providing more detailed guidelines that the Banks should adhere to.

Macedonian currency

macedonian currency - denars

The Macedonian currency is the Macedonian Denar. The need for establishing the first Macedonian currency arose with the breakup of Yugoslavia when Macedonia became an independent country on September, 8, 1991. As a result, on April, 26, 1992, the previously used Yugoslav Dinar was replaced with the first Macedonian Denar. With the newly introduced currency and the newly established national bank on April, 26, 1991, Macedonia achieved its monetary independence from Yugoslavia. On the following day, the Macedonian Denar entered into circulation.

However, the Macedonian Denar that entered circulation on April, 27, 1992 was used only temporarily and it was permanently replaced in 1993 with the “second” Macedonian Denar at a rate of 100 to 1. Although there were changes in the denominations of the Macedonian Denar through the years, currently the following denominations are in use:

Banknotes: 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1.000 and 2.000

Coins: 1, 2, 5, 10 and 50

The denominations of 100 and 500 are in use since 1993, while the 1.000 was additionally added in 1996. In 2016, the denominations of 200 and 2.000 were put in circulation, and in 2017 the polymer banknotes in the denominations of 10 and 50 were issued.

The coins in denominations of 1, 2 and 5 are into circulation as of 1993 and in 2008 the coins in denominations of 10 and 50 were introduced.

So how much money will you need while staying in Macedonia? Well, you can visit our guide on the cost of living in Macedonia to find out everything you need to know.

Exchange rates

Since 1995, the National Bank strategy is to keep the exchange rate of the Macedonian Denar fixed, At that time, the exchange rate was kept fixed against the German Mark and today against the Euro.

Macedonian Denar exchange rate (average for the period)

  EUR USD CHF GBP JPY
2014 61.623 46.443 50.738 76.451 0.439
2015 61.610 55.497 57.729 84.868 0.459
2016 61.595 55.686 56.512 75.481 0.513
Current (01.07.2019) 61.5700 54.1037 55.4435 68.6705 0.5022

*Macedonia in numbers, 2017, page 29, State agency of statistics

Interest rate

The National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia takes decisions on the interest rates and its official interest rate is the Central Bank bills rate. This rate represents a basis for determining the interest rate of the bank loans and it currently equals 2.25%.

To conclude

You can use our locator to find most of the ATMs in the city of Skopje as well as some of the ATMs in Ohrid, Bitola, Berovo, Struga and Strumica. Do note that one location tag can mean several ATMs located on the same spot. This is usually true for malls and shopping centers. Also, here is a very detailed guide on shopping in Skopje, which will help you get around the Macedonian capital. Remember that you can visit the website of every Macedonian bank and learn more about their line of products or how to get in contact with a representative from one of the local branches.