Client
The World BankThe World Bank Group is one of the world’s leading development organizations, working in over 100 countries to support economic growth and reduce poverty.
Through its Joint Capital Markets Program (J-CAP), the World Bank helps countries build stronger local capital markets. The goal is to make it easier for businesses and governments to access long-term funding in local currency — reducing the reliance on foreign-denominated loans and making economies more stable.
J-CAP is active in more than nine countries, including Serbia, where it works with local partners to create better conditions for investment, support financial innovation, and encourage private sector growth.
The main goal of the project was to identify a group of Serbian companies that could realistically issue corporate bonds in the local currency. At the same time, the project aimed to better understand the key obstacles holding back both companies (the supply side) and investors (the demand side) in Serbia’s corporate bond market.
This work is especially important because Serbia’s capital market was still in the early stages of development. Corporate bond activity was minimal, most businesses relied on Euro-denominated bank loans, and there was limited involvement from institutional investors like pension funds and insurance companies.
A few major challenges stand in the way:
Overcoming these barriers was essential to help grow Serbia’s local capital market and give businesses more options for sustainable, long-term financing.
To better understand Serbia’s potential for local currency corporate bonds, Civitta carried out a comprehensive Prospects Study, focusing on both the issuer (companies) and investor sides of the market.