At the opening of the conference and exhibition of banking technologies named “Tehnobank 2015”, Assistant Minister for Information Society Sava Savić has stressed that Serbian banking sector, following the world trends and technological innovations, has reached a significant level of development of digital banking, with strong perspectives for improvement and further growth.

Mr Savić has stressed that the process of digitalisation of the banking sector in Serbia has been ongoing, encouraged by a growing level of use of smart mobile devices, and an increased level of computer literacy.

Assistant Minister has reminded that the availability of bank branches in rural areas of our country, covering 44% of the population, is minimal, and monetary transactions are mainly done in cash, but that the great potential for development of mobile banking, added Mr Savić, is a great coverage of the territory of Serbia with 3G network of over 95% and 4G network of 10%, which provides the ability to distant money transfer and payment of bills without going to a bank or a post office.

Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, according to the words of the Assistant Minister, has created and forwarded to the Government of the Republic of Serbia a Draft Law on Electronic Document, Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions done in lien with the European directive, which, as a novelty has an electronic seal, timestamp, recommended electronic delivery, authentication of web sites and electronic data storage.

“Adoption of this law will make the transactions faster and more efficient and will reduce the costs of transactions of companies, public authorities and citizens, modernisation and more efficient work of public authorities and easier and safer access to services of public authorities and other entities provided electronically, and access to a larger number of those services”, Assistant Minister has stated.
Mr Sava Savić has emphasised that the development of contact-free smart cards and development of technology of “digital wallet”, the information and communication technologies have ensures a full dematerialisation of money to the extent that money itself is becoming a specific monetary information.

“We have payments by cards through the Portal of the Business Registry Agency, eGoverment, and tax payers through the eTaxes can perform the liabilities towards the government without queuing and fully electronically”, Mr Savić has said.

“Over two thirds of all transactions in domestic banks which have introduced mBanking solutions are done through digital services, and maintenance of accounts and commissions are not charged by banks, which significantly influences the reduction of costs, time saving and pleasure of users”, said Assistant Minister.
“Due to the trends of digital transformation of business the biggest changes occur in the banking market, digital money and digital banking are becoming a framework of development of digital economy”, Mr Savić concluded.

Tehnobank is a platform for exchange of information on new trends from banking industry. The conference included also a specialised forum on payment transactions through bank cards and supporting ICT technologies in Europe and the world.