Last week, there was a shortage of foreign currency in some exchange offices throughout Serbia, primarily euros and dollars, which is why the National Bank of Serbia ordered all commercial banks to provide enough foreign money for exchange offices related to them.
Nikola Dragašević, Director General of the Sector for Monetary and Foreign Exchange Operations of the NBS, claims that there is no reason to panic or to increase the purchase of cash in foreign currencies or withdraw foreign exchange from the banking sector.
– In the past period, we have seen increased demand for foreign cash in exchange offices and banks and we have increased the supply of the banking sector with that cash, ie foreign money. So, there is no need or reason or basis for panic, for increased demand for that money, because there is enough of it – Dragašević pointed out.
In the past few days, the inspection also controlled the exchange rate in the exchange offices. Namely, authorized gearboxes cannot determine it arbitrarily, but must be “within the allowed limits”. The range of the buying and selling rate for the euro can be plus / minus 1.25 percent of the official middle exchange rate of the NBS. In practice, that would mean that if the middle exchange rate is 117.6 dinars, as it is now, the exchange offices could buy the euro for a minimum of 116.1 dinars, and sell it for a maximum of 119.1 dinars.
Speaking about the commissions that exchange offices can collect additionally when buying cash from citizens, Dragašević said that the commission is limited to one percent of the purchase rate that the exchange office has in its exchange rate list. In practice, that means that exchange offices could pay a minimum of 115 dinars in euros.
– If the authorized exchange offices do not behave in accordance with the regulations, there are also fines, but there is also a penalty of revoking the license or authorization to perform that job – Dragašević stated for RTS.
Fines for individuals and individuals can range from 10,000 to 500,000 dinars, while fines for legal entities range from 100,000 to two million dinars, Blic reports.
