Payments Landscape in Serbia: Opportunities and Risks to 2023

Payments Landscape in Serbia: Opportunities and Risks to 2023

Summary
The author’s 'Payments Landscape in Serbia: Opportunities and Risks to 2023', report provides detailed analysis of market trends in the Serbian cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cards, credit transfers, direct debits, and cheques during the review-period (2015-19).

The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2019-23). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.

The report brings together the author’s research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.

This report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the Serbian cards and payments industry, including:

• Current and forecast values for each market in the Serbian cards and payments industry, including debit, credit, and charge cards.
• Detailed insights into payment instruments including cards, credit transfers, cheques, and direct debits. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.
• E-commerce market analysis.
• Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing the Serbian cards and payments industry.
• Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit, and charge cards.

Scope

• Financial inclusion remains one of the key focus areas of the Serbian government, which has taken several steps with this in mind. In March 2019 the Right to a Payment Account With Basic Features was implemented. This regulation aims to accelerate the provision of basic financial services to the underbanked population. The law stipulates that banks must offer low-cost bank accounts with basic features including cash deposits and withdrawals, a debit card, payments, and fund transfers. The government also introduced a new law on account switching, in order to make the process of switching current accounts faster and easier.
• To facilitate instant real-time fund transfers, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) (the county’s central bank) launched Instant Payments Serbia (IPS) in October 2018. Operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, IPS allows both individuals and corporations to make fund transfers in seconds, with a maximum transfer limit of RSD300,000 ($2,905.09) per transaction. As of April 2019, IPS needs to be offered to bank customers via all accessible channels.
• During the same month, the central bank obliged banks to enable instant payments at merchant stores via QR code-based solutions. This allows merchants to receive their funds instantly, whereas card payments can take a few days to clear. And for added convenience, the new system also enables users to make fund transfers via the recipient’s mobile phone number. According to the NBS, the IPS system processed 451,483 transactions in April 2019, compared to 354,969 in January 2019. On average 15,049 payments were processed per day in April 2019, with a daily average turnover of RSD225.8m ($2.2m), at an average execution time of 1.18 seconds per transaction.
• To further encourage card acceptance among Serbian merchants, the central bank passed a new regulation reducing the interchange fee to the EU standard in December 2018. The new law caps the interchange fee at 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards, compared to the previous average of 1%.

Reasons to buy

• Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the Serbian cards and payments industry and each market within it.
• Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the Serbian cards and payments industry.
• Assess the competitive dynamics in the Serbian cards and payments industry.
• Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Serbia.
• Gain insights into key regulations governing the Serbian cards and payments industry.