The State Froze Their Savings — For 33 Years

In 1990, Yugoslavia froze the foreign-currency savings of its own citizens. Not lost to inflation. Not stolen by fraudsters. Locked — by the state that had printed "the deposit is guaranteed by the state" on the cover of every savings book. The marks were already gone: local banks had passed the hard currency up to the National Bank, which spent it on imports, debt and reserves. What savers held was a claim — and when the country dissolved, every successor state pointed at another. Nobody paid. Three citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina — Emina Ališić, Aziz Sadžak and Sakib Šahdanović — took the case to Strasbourg. In 2014 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Slovenia and Serbia were responsible, and that there had been "no good reason" to keep the savers waiting. Slovenia paid out nearly €290 million by 2018. Serbia recognised some €4.2 billion of old foreign-currency savings, with the final instalments for savers across the former country arriving only in 2023. From the freeze to the final instalment: thirty-three years. Episode 3 of "Could It Happen In Your Country?" — a series on how money dies, and who profits when it does. CHAPTERS 0:00 Could it happen in your country? 0:31 The morning the counter said no 1:28 Why marks — and the four words on the cover 3:14 The mechanism 4:49 The debt becomes yours 6:01 Three names in Strasbourg 8:10 What it actually cost 9:28 Could it happen where you live? ▶ Episode 1 — The Country Where Prices Doubled Every 34 Hours:    • The Country Where Prices Doubled Every 34 ...   ▶ Episode 2 — How Two Bankers Robbed a Nation:    • How Two Bankers Robbed a Nation — 15% a Month   SOURCES & FURTHER READING • ECHR, Ališić and Others v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and FYR Macedonia (no. 60642/08), Grand Chamber, 16 July 2014 • Government of Slovenia — Implementation of the Ališić case (repayment scheme figures) • Zakon o regulisanju javnog duga po osnovu neisplaćene devizne štednje (Serbia, 2016); Ministry of Finance of Serbia • OHR, case CH-98-420 (mechanism of FX redepositing with the National Bank) • wiiw — on the autumn 1990 freeze and capital controls IMAGE CREDITS • Courtroom & building of the European Court of Human Rights — photos by Adrian Grycuk (CC BY-SA 3.0 PL), CherryX (CC BY-SA 3.0), francois (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons • National Bank building, Belgrade — BuhaM (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons • Period photographs of Yugoslavia — Fortepan / Romák Éva, MZSL/Ofner Károly (CC BY-SA 3.0) • Savings book photographs edited: personal data masked ABOUT THE VISUALS This is an independent educational documentary. Most scenes are stylised 2D illustration; archival photographs and documents are shown in labelled "archive" frames. Nothing in this video is financial advice. ▶ Subscribe — a new collapse every week. #financialhistory #yugoslavia #savings #banking #frozenaccounts