In the same terms of the written declaration made on last January 28 by the President of the Management Board of the Société Générale branch in Serbia, Mr. Goran Pitić, the CEO of Podgorička Banka a.d. in Montenegro, Mr. Mladen Rabrenović, today wished on his turn, by the way of an interview to the Podgorica daily Republika, to reassure his private customers and investors by confirming that the bank will not suffer the consequences of the problem that occurred in the Paris headquarters of the Société Générale, the French owner of Podgorička Banka since October 2005.

Mr. Rabrenović reminded that, if on January 24, Société Générale Paris (France) announced to be suffering losses of about €4.9 billion due to one of its trader’s embezzlement, Mr. Jérôme Kerviel, the loss would be entirely covered by last year’s Group profits, adding that it was proving the Société Générale’s strength on global level: “The fact that it is possible to cover the losses from the profits and to have enough for capital increase from profits says enough about Société Générale.”

On the occasion of this restatement, Mr. Rabrenović announced that Podgorička Banka will continue with the activities planned for this year on the Montenegrin market, and even announced that a capital increase of the Bank would take place in the course of the year for an amount of about €10 million.

Since its privatisation and acquisition by the Société Générale Group in October 2005 for €14 million, Podgorička Banka, with more than 20 branches in the country, has gone from the third to the second rank of the leading banks in Montenegro according to its market capitalization which amounted in October 2007 to about €143 million, just behind the Crnogorska Komercijalna Banka-CKB with €184 million market value.

As earlier as January 2007, that is to say a little more than one year after its repurchase, Podgorička Banka announced to have already entered 1,600 new customers and as many consumer credits for about €3 million incur, and noted a deposit increase of about 46%, however publishing negative business results for 2006, losing €300,000 due to the opening a new branch and the modernization of its business.

In general, almost all banks in Montenegro have a tendency to increase their assets, deposits, allocated loans and number of branches.