The increasing importance of credit risk management in the banking sector is the subject of research presented in this paper. Research goals include determining the importance and influence of risks on business success of banks in strategic terms, in the long run. In this sense, key results of empirical research on the territory of Serbia in 2015 on a sample of 34 financial institutions, (69 percent of the total number of banks in Serbia), have been provided. The results which were processed by theoretical, statistical and mathematical methods confirmed validity of the proposed hypothesis that risks have a great impact on revenues of companies. The significance of research results can be seen in the implementation of theory and practice, as well as the tools for assessing internal and external risks which might influence banking operations and sustainability.