Radovan Jelašić: Educating consumers of financial services in Serbia
Speech by Mr Radovan Jelašić, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, on the promotion
of the brochure "How to Talk to Banks" issued by ProCredit Bank, Belgrade,
12 October 2007.
* * *
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The developed world pays special attention to consumer education, particularly in the
aftermath of major crises, with the aim of not only ensuring necessary prerequisites for
economically feasible decision-making, but also with a view to strengthening confidence of
the general public in the banking system. Worldwide practice shows that that there can be no
efficient financial sector unless consumers of financial services are sufficiently
knowledgeable in their use. In the long last, it is the level of public trust that both profits and
long-term positioning of financial institutions in a particular market depend upon. For this
particular reason, financial institutions should be aware that it is in their best medium- and
long-term interest to make the information about their products transparent, accessible and
formulated in a language that can be easily comprehended by the general public. This line of
reasoning is particularly important in Serbia since our citizens were deprived for quite some
time of more sophisticated commercial bank services, as they were reduced to the most
fundamental ones in the course of the past decade and a half.
Amid a tide of countless marketing campaigns and fast expansion of financial services, the
National Bank of Serbia recognized on time the need to provide the citizens with fair and
objective information on all aspects of the use of money! Hence, our first step was to set up a
free-of-charge Call Centre in October 2005. However, we soon became aware of the need to
broaden education of the public in a systematic and well organized fashion, and ultimately
decided to set up of a Centre for Financial Services Consumer Protection and Market
Supervision in early 2007. The purpose of this Centre is to spread information and improve
education of users of financial services, as well as to increase transparency of terms under
which such services are offered. The Centre has so far prepared and published a number of
leaflets and brochures aiming to draw attention of citizens to the particular features of
financial products they should pay special attention to when making decision on the
purchase of a financial product. The Centre aims not to decide for the client, but to help the
bank customers make informed decisions.
The ultimate goal of the National Bank of Serbia is to encourage banks to invest more in
client education and to further improve communication between users and providers of
banking products and services. Therefore, we extend our warm welcome to the initiative of
ProCredit Bank and the brochure "How to Talk to Banks", which will doubtless make rights
and obligations arising from the use of specific financial products and services more easily
comprehensible to customers. This brochure shall certainly also contribute to better
compliance with good business practices and improve the level of proficiency and expertise
of members of staff of financial institutions.
As the world around us is becoming increasingly complex, financial services are also
evolving. More tailored to the needs of clients, financial services are at times very complex
and difficult to understand, let alone put into practice. Instead of being angry with banks and
the central bank, this and other brochures should be made good use of all the way from here
to Frankfurt. "Lucky are those who know the limits of their knowledge and wish to broaden
their horizons" for they are the ones who will make the best use of this brochure.