“Digital economy requires a modern regulatory framework, numerous innovations encourage the creation of socio-technological infrastructure for the new form of money and start the historic transformation of money into digital money.”, says Assistant Minister for information society Sava Savić at the panel on testing modern trends of bank industry in the era of digital society at the 17th Economic Summit – during the conference #SerbiaCashless Forum.
On that occasion Mr Savić has underlined that digital transformation has transformed the Internet information into the Internet of value and brought to demonetisation, adding that the development of contactless smart cards and with the improvement of technology of “digital wallet”, information and communication technologies ensured full dematerialisation of money, to the extent that money itself is becoming a specific monetary information.
“”The encouraging regulatory framework is rather an important factor of the development of Serbian digital economy, and with the entry into force of the Law on Electronic Document, Electronic Identification and Trust Services in Electronic Transactions, and with regulating the schemes of electronic identification and qualified trust services it will affect and significantly improve digital banking”, says Mr Savić.
Assistant Minister has stressed that digital money will lead to a radical transformation of the banking sector, but the economy as well in general: “Apart from on-line transactions, digital money will be used also in off-line transactions instead of paper money”.
Mr Savić has reminded that the access to banks in rural areas on the territory of the Republic of Serbia is minimal, and money transactions are mostly done in cash, which reduces the ability of a simple distance transfer of money, payment of bills without going to a bank or post office, and other financial services – except from the digital, primarily mobile banking, with the coverage of 99% wit 3G and 4G networks, this is becoming a huge potential for the development of mobile banking.
“Process of digitalisation of the banking sector of Serbia has been going on, encouraged by an increasing use of smart mobile devices, and by an increasing level of computer literacy”, says Mr Savić.
“The necessity for decentralisation is a natural response to modern services and requirement of a large number of users, solution for robust centralised systems, a reduction of costs of transactions, response time, and raising the service quality.
Mobile bank and digital bank offices are nothing new, says Mr Savić, but a solution where all financial operations are done completely electronically without a single piece of paper, from money sending to loans approval.
New services are appearing, which enable the users to perform a wide variety of bank transactions completely through a chat-bot, reminded Mr Savić, adding that with one single move of a finger, users of mobile wallets from now on will be able to immediately send and transfer money, check their account status and access other bank services, while the receivers will be able to raise the sent money immediately at the ATM or by going to the nearest bank branch office.
“Keeping up with world trends and technological innovations, I can proudly say that Serbian banking sector has reached a significant level of development of digital banking, with fierce perspectives for improvement and further growth, thanks to you, the creators of the digital future”, concluded Assistant Minister Sava Savić.
