We would like to inform you that Raiffeisen banka has, along with a great number of other banks in Serbia and in the region, received information in the past two days by payment card associations, regarding suspicions that a certain number of payment cards has been compromised due to possible unauthorized access to data bases. We are awaiting an official explanation from the payment card associations in relation to the situation that has arisen.

During the afternoon hours of Dec. 15, 2011, our bank was among the first in the local market to perform an urgent security measure of temporary blocking a certain number of payment cards, for which there existed doubts that they were potentially threatened. The temporary blocking of these cards was done as a prevention measure, in order to protect clients’ funds on their cards’ accounts, until the affected cards have been substituted. All clients whose cards have been temporarily blocked, received a timely information by SMS and other communication channels used by the bank.

Meanwhile, clients can perform all their financial transactions in our bank’s branch offices.

In order to shorten the period during which the card is temporarily blocked, the bank has organized urgent production of new cards, so that clients will receive them by the end of next week at the latest. They will be notified accordingly by SMS. We would like to ask all clients, after they receive this message, to contact their main branch in order to obtain their new card.

Those clients who need to make a card transaction, i.e. who wish to have their card activated until the new card is produced, can do so by personal request and responsibility in any of the bank’s branch offices, as well as by phoning the Contact Centre on 0800 111 000 and 011/ 3202 800. The bank can block the card again, if agreed so with the cardholder.

We would like to ask clients for understanding the efforts we are making in this respect and would like to assure them that the steps undertaken by the bank were done only in their own best interest.