The digitalization of banking services now also includes promissory notes, so they will soon exist in electronic form. The plan is for this service to be available as early as this year. Paper promissory notes will still exist and can be used and registered through banks, as is currently the case.
The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) states that there is no intention to abolish the use of paper promissory notes. Instead, the aim is to further digitize financial services and business in our country, allowing electronic promissory notes (e-notes) to be another way for users to issue and transfer promissory notes. Users who wish to use e-notes will be able to obtain this service from the bank without paying specific fees for its activation, and banks will be obliged to accept e-notes as a means of collateral, for example, in the case of loans, for clients who choose to use them.
In the Register of Promissory Notes and Authorizations, which will include the Central Register of e-Promissory Notes, a total of 8,423,038 promissory notes are currently registered. At the moment, the registry only includes promissory notes of legal entities and individuals engaged in business activities, not those of citizens. The majority of the registered promissory notes are blank promissory notes, meaning they have no specified amount, while only 3,700 promissory notes are registered as complete promissory notes with a specified amount. Concerning registered complete promissory notes, the majority (3,642) have the specified amount in dinars.
E-Promissory notes will be filled out and used through a dedicated user application (Central Register of e-Promissory Notes), accessible to users through their electronic or mobile banking accounts. The process of filling out promissory notes will be the same, whether the debtor is an individual or a company.
Once the debtor repays the debt for which the e-promissory note was issued, they can request the deletion of that e-promissory note from their creditor through the application. The creditor can accept the request and delete the e-promissory note without charging any fees. Additionally, the creditor can independently and for free delete an e-promissory note for which the debt has been settled, even without the debtor’s request. If the creditor fails to delete the e-promissory note after the debt has been paid, the debtor can, as is currently the case, request the cancellation of the promissory note in court. The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) will automatically delete such an e-promissory note when it receives a legally binding court decision on the cancellation of the e-promissory note.
Debt collection will expedite, as the creditor will be able to electronically submit a payment order to the debtor’s bank using the application (without the need for a physical visit to the bank). The debtor’s bank will be obligated to respond to this order within a prescribed, relatively short period, indicating whether the payment order has been accepted and, if accepted, whether it has been executed from the debtor’s account at that bank or if the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) has been sent a compulsory collection order. Upon receiving the compulsory collection order that the bank sends to the central bank, the blocking of all debtor’s accounts and compulsory collection will be carried out efficiently and quickly, as it has been done before.
Within their account on the application, the debtor will have an overview of the status of all e-promissory notes they have issued, including information about the creditor with whom a specific e-promissory note is currently located. Additionally, it will provide details on how the user filled or amended the information on the e-promissory note that was not completed during its registration and the initial transfer, or information about sending a compulsory collection order for a specific e-promissory note.
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