Serbia, The electronic promissory note will very quickly become a means of security

Published on 2. December 2022., News

It brings savings to the economy and citizens, and will initially be used alongside paper ones

The electronic promissory note will very quickly become a means of security when approving a loan. The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) is in the final phase of developing the entire IT solution, while simultaneously working with all banks to adjust their information and communication (ICT) systems so that all banks are fully ready for the introduction of electronic bills in the first half of 2023 year. This, as stated by the central bank, will create conditions for additional savings, first of all for the economy, and then for citizens, considering the importance that the bill of exchange as a special type of securities has in everyday business life, primarily as a kind of security for significant number of jobs.

Enabling the use of electronic promissory notes in an IT-secure manner will also lead to certain processes in the financial sector being fully digitized (even when the promissory note is a means of security). In the previous period, precisely on the basis of the decision and proposal of the NBS, the possibility of so-called video identification (instead of identification in physical presence in the bank’s premises) and conclusion of contracts on financial services in electronic form was introduced for those citizens who do not have a qualified electronic signature, with two-factor authentication using a mobile phone or computer.

“When it comes to the solution itself, electronic promissory notes will be used alongside paper promissory notes, whereby electronic promissory notes will contain all the data prescribed by the Law on Promissory Notes and which are now used in practice, which will facilitate the transition from paper to electronic promissory notes. Users will be able to create and fill out electronic bills of exchange, register them, transfer them to creditors, and charge them within the framework of their account in a special user application developed and managed by the NBS (Central Register of e-bills). All electronic bills will be managed in this application and all data on their use will be recorded in it. Users will access this application through their e-banking and m-banking, which should also enable a quick transition to the new solution.

Bearing in mind that more than seven million promissory notes are currently registered in the NBS, it is clear how much the introduction of electronic promissory notes in the manner planned, and by which Serbia should be the leading country in the region, can contribute to the efficiency and speed of business in establishing debt- creditor relations and bring savings to the economy, given that this process will certainly be economically more favorable for bill issuers, according to the NBS.

Users of banking services were wondering what will happen to their bill after the loan is paid off, whether they should take it or leave it with the bank for safekeeping. Uin the future, it will be foreseen that all creditors, including banks as creditors on the basis of the loan, on their own initiative or at the request of their debtor, will delete a certain e-promissory note from the application, i.e. the register, free of charge, which will cease to exist. “If the creditor does not delete the electronic promissory note on the basis of the debtor’s request after the loan has been repaid, in accordance with the loan agreement, and we are not aware of any cases in current practice where the banks have kept the promissory notes against the will of the debtor and contrary to the loan agreement, the debtor has at his disposal, between among other things, the possibility that he still has according to the Bill of Exchange Law, which is that the competent court issues a decision on the cancellation of the e-bill, on the basis of which the NBS would delete the electronic bill from the register”, they answer our question from the NBS, Politika writes.

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