At today’s extraordinary session of the Executive Board, the National Bank of Serbia adopted decisions prescribing a delay in payment of debtors’ obligations (moratorium).
Bearing in mind the need to maintain the achieved level and further strengthen the stability of the financial system in the face of potential risks caused by a state of emergency in the country, the NBS has adopted the Decision on interim measures to preserve the stability of the financial system and the Decision on interim measures for leasing providers in order to maintain the stability of the financial system.
Regarding the adopted measures, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia Jorgovanka Tabakovic stated that financial stability is necessary in both regular and extraordinary circumstances in the country.
“The National Bank of Serbia, in coordination with other state bodies, undertakes and will undertake all necessary measures to protect stability and in an extraordinary circumstances facilitate the position of citizens and economy of the Republic of Serbia”, says Tabakovic, according to a NBS statement.
The moratorium is prescribed for all debtors who want it (individuals, farmers and entrepreneurs and companies), and implies a delay in repayment of obligations that can not be less than 90 days, that is, the duration of a state of emergency introduced due to a pandemic.
During this period, the debtor will not be obliged to repay its obligations under the loan or leasing.
Certainly, according to the NBS, the bank’s debtors and / or the recipients of the lease, after the implementation of these measures, have not been prevented from regularly fulfilling their obligations.
“During the state of emergency, the bank, as well as the leasing provider, will not charge default interest on arrears and arrears and will not initiate enforcement or enforced collection, nor will it take other legal actions to collect its claims from clients”, NBS said.
In addition, the bank, as well as the leasing provider, will not be able to claim from the borrower any costs related to the implementation of the adopted regulations.
“For the sake of transparency and unambiguous information to their clients, in accordance with the above regulations, banks and financial leasing providers are obliged to give notice of a delay in the repayment obligations on their websites, which will be considered to be delivered to all clients (bank debtors, that is, to the lessees”.
If the client does not reject the said offer within ten days of the publication of this notice, the competent say, it will be considered to accept the moratorium without any obligation to go to the bank.
Just after this deadline, the moratorium begins to take legal effect, but debtors will be able to repay their obligations.
“The measures have been weighed with special care and taking into account the potential for repayment of the liabilities of both citizens and business entities and the need to overcome the negative effects on citizens and the economy, due to the possibility of dealing with the difficulties of repaying the obligations of the bank’s borrowers, ie recipients of financial leasing, which objectively exists in view of the new situation”, the statement said.
The National Bank of Serbia states that it is constantly monitoring the situation in the financial sector, which, as they explain, is no exception in these extraordinary circumstances, and will monitor the implementation of new decisions and carefully analyze the effects of adopted regulations, RTV reports.
