National Bank of Serbia Governor Radovan Jelasic appealed to the public not to pull out money from their savings because banks are safe.

Jelasic also urged the public not to take out loans because rates will be on the rise so it would be prudent to wait until EU benchmark rates comes down.

He said that about EUR 5.7 billion of all the savings with the domestic banks are backed by more than EUR 9.5 billion of foreign currency reserves.

"Banking sector in Serbia is highly liquid because a third of the banking balances are held in required reserves [made up of] cash and quality paper," said Jelasic.

Jelasic noted that banks in Serbia are required to hold 40% of all deposits on hand at all times and that makes the deposits very safe.

He also said that Serbian foreign currency reserves are safe and that $2 billion of the cash is deposited with Bundesbank in Germany, $1 billion with the U.S. Federal Reserve and that another portion is held in AAA bonds abroad.

Jelasic also accused the speculators for spreading the panic in order to make a profit.