My Travels to Kosovo

Post-World War II Yugoslavia consisted of the federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Though its residents were predominantly Albanian, Kosovo was a province of Serbia. During part of its post-WWII history, Kosovo was relatively autonomous within Serbia, while part of the time it was ruled directly by Serbia. Frictions between Albanian and Serbian Kosovars escalated in the 1990s into armed conflict, which ended only with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) bombing of Serbian Army forces in Kosovo and Serbia proper from March 24 to June 10, 1999.

Following the June 10 end to the fighting, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) took over the governance of a ruined Kosovo. Among the normal needs to be restored most urgently (food, water, electricity, etc.), was the ability to pay for things. Kosovo’s banks were closed, and its financial and monetary connection with Belgrade and the rest of the world was not functioning. There was an urgent need to revive Kosovo’s ability to make payments while also determining what sort of financial systems to build for a future, more integrated with the rest of Europe.

If only by using it, Kosovars themselves had answered what currency they wished to use—the German mark (DM). But arrangements were urgently needed for how to acquire and maintain DM banknotes and coins (I remember well the tattered currencies in post-war Bosnia and Iraq), and to adjust the procedures of banks and other money handlers to the use and safekeeping of DM, rather than the Serbian dinars previously supplied by the National Bank of Serbia.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) joined with the United Nations, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and other international organizations to provide the needed emergency humanitarian assistance and to help in the rebuilding of a potentially transformed economy. I led the IMF missions to address the money and banking aspects of this effort. The revival and/or restructuring of Kosovo’s monetary capacities needed to be achieved in days and weeks rather than months and years. This was a tall order.

My latest book documents our work to revive and transform Kosovo’s monetary system and some of the challenges and adventures we encountered in the process. Most of us only see the public face of our payment systems (currency, ATM machines, credit cards). In recounting our experiences in restoring and transforming Kosovo’s payment system, I will endeavor to pull back the curtain a bit to expose what is behind and generally out of sight.

If this interests you, you can buy the paperback or kindle versions here. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Warren+Coats&i=stripbooks&crid=10ON15E99H8X6&sprefix=warren+coats%2Cstripbooks%2C63&ref=nb_sb_noss_1  This will also give you the opportunity to rate the book. I hope that you will enjoy it.