Serbia’s e-commerce sector has received an important regulatory clarification after the National Bank of Serbia confirmed that domestic companies may charge non-resident customers in foreign currency when selling goods and services online.
The opinion, issued following an initiative by NALED’s Small Business Council, removes a practical barrier that had affected Serbian companies, start-ups and online merchants targeting foreign buyers. Until now, many cross-border online transactions were disrupted at checkout because customers abroad were shown a final payment obligation in Serbian dinars, even when prices had been displayed in both dinars and foreign currency and the buyer had selected payment in foreign currency. For many international customers, the sudden switch to an unfamiliar currency created confusion, lowered trust and often led to cart abandonment.
NALED said the issue stemmed from differing interpretations of Serbia’s Foreign Exchange Operations Law, especially provisions related to payment between residents and non-residents. In practice, restrictive interpretations had often limited foreign-currency collection from buyers abroad, despite the absence of a clear regulatory prohibition.
The NBS has now clarified that there are no regulatory obstacles preventing a Serbian resident company from collecting payment in foreign currency from a non-resident consumer. The key distinction is that the place of payment execution is linked to the payer’s bank. When a foreign buyer initiates payment through a bank outside Serbia, the transaction is not treated as executed within the Republic of Serbia. Cross-border e-commerce payments between residents and non-residents may therefore be freely conducted in foreign currency for current transactions.
The clarification is significant for Serbian exporters using digital channels, particularly small businesses, software firms, start-ups, creative-service providers and niche product sellers that depend on international buyers. It gives companies greater certainty when structuring online checkout systems, pricing pages and payment flows for foreign customers.
NALED also noted that the display of dinar prices at the final stage of online purchase is not governed by foreign-exchange rules, but depends on the policies and technical settings of banks, payment processors and e-commerce platforms. The next step, therefore, is practical implementation: banks, processors and online platforms will need to align their internal policies with the NBS position so that Serbian merchants can actually offer foreign-currency checkout to non-resident buyers.
The clarification implements one of the priority recommendations from Grey Book of Innovation 3.0, prepared under the StarTech project, an $8 million programme implemented by NALED and Philip Morris International, with support from the Government of Serbia.
