Complete Banking Services
Currently, there are 22 commercial banks in majority ownership of foreign shareholders, including those privatized or acquired by international banks. Most of them have branch offices in all major Serbian cities, providing a wide array of banking services, such as:
- Deposit operations,
- Credit operations,
- Foreign exchange and foreign currency transactions,
- Issuing operations (securities and credit cards),
- Treasury operations (money market foreign exchange),
- Custody operations (safekeeping and handling securities),
- Stock exchange related operations (purchase and sale of securities),
- Guarantee operations (extending warranties, guarantees, endorsements),
- Documentary operations,
- Electronic banking,
- Cash management,
- Intermediation (broker role in trading in securities),
- Purchasing and collection of claims,
- Other financial services,
- External payment operations and external loan operations.
Every-day payment transactions are, with a few exceptions, made in Serbian Dinars, and one can use different types of credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Diners). All major foreign currencies can be freely purchased and sold in exchange offices throughout the country. Foreign persons, who have lived in Serbia for more than a year, may have a foreign currency account both in the country and abroad. Foreign cash, payment cards, and checks may be brought into the country with no restrictions, provided they are declared to the customs authorities at the border-cross. The declared amount may also be taken out from Serbia, as well as any amount withdrawn from a bank account.
To learn more about the banking sector in Serbia, please visit the web site of the National Bank of Serbia: www.nbs.yu.
