An incident was reported yesterday evening in Kavadarci when a man attempted to retrieve the money he has deposited in the Eurostandard Bank, that went under. Police had to be sent to defuse the situation.

The bank, owned by oligarch Trifun Kostovski, who made his money in metal trading in the murky 1990-ies, had its licence revoked by the Central Bank yesterday with little warning. This left depositors, but also many who use the bank for day to day operations, in great uncertainty.

The Fund for ensuring bank deposits tried to assure depositors today that it will begin reimbursing them within 20 days. By law, deposits of up to 30.000 EUR are guaranteed by the publicly managed fund, but the schedule at which the citizens can hope to get their money back is uncertain.

Eurostandard has a long standing exclusive contract to cooperate with the Macedonian Post Office, using its numerous branches across the country for its operations. This gives it unique reach, even as it’s considered a relatively small bank. Its collapse, due to unspecified poor business decisions, could also cause problems for the Post Office.