radovan jelasic : developments in the serbian financial sector speech by mr radovan jelasic, governor of the national bank of serbia, on the occasion of the opening of the eighth forum and exhibition of banking technology “ tehnobank 2008 ”, belgrade, 9 april 2008. * * * ladies and gentlemen, allow me to greet you on behalf of the national bank of serbia on the occasion of the opening of the eighth “ tehnobank ” meeting which was first organized at the outset of transition of our economy. i wish to thank the organizers for a very interesting programme which, just as the transition itself, forces us to face up to new challenging ideas. the serbian financial sector is developing rapidly and i wish to single out three topics from this year ’ s agenda which the nbs is particularly keen to develop : • business continuity and disaster recovery • mobile payment services • new sepa regulations why these three? first, because quality and efficiency in performing financial services are of vital interest to any central bank. implementation of the technology which enables business continuity and disaster recovery is a sign of maturity of both the banking industry and the banking market environment itself. the nbs expects that application of such technologies will increase in the near future and, with that purpose in mind, in cooperation with the bank of england, plans to organize an international seminar on this topic to take place in belgrade on 13 through 15 may 2008. the nbs will host this meeting to discuss the targets, significance and the experiences of central banks in managing business continuity as well as the strategy for disaster recovery and averting threats to the normal conduct of business operations. one thing is for certain – in the 21st century, liquidity and solvency are important but are not sufficient to ensure stability of the financial sector if business continuity and disaster recovery do not function immaculately. let us take the uk example of the northern rock where a mistake in that respect actually led in great part to the first instance of bank nationalization after more than a century. mobile payments, however, are a chance for serbia to jumpstart technological development and to implement from the start the most innovative technologies. while many countries are still at the stage of devising extended pilot programs for mobile payments, in many serbian cities mobile telephony is already used for payment of parking space fees, while payment of top up fees for prepaid mobile telephony through sms messaging service is already a matter of everyday use. it gives me pleasure

the ten - year eurobond in dollars in november 2020, with the simultaneous fx hedging operation, our country achieved the lowest price of financing thus far in the international financial market – 1. 066 %. most of the funds raised in this transaction were used for the early repayment of a significant part of the remaining debt under expensive dollar eurobonds issued in 2011 at a high yield rate of 7. 50 %. this way, even during the crisis, serbia continued the practice of responsible behaviour replacing the previously agreed expensive dollar debts by cheaper ones. according to the assessment of rating agencies, in order to move to the investment - grade rating, we need policy continuity, further growth in exports and fx reserves, continued fdi inflow and sustainable public finances. as all of this is “ in line ” with our medium - term projections, we estimate that serbia will have an investment grade within a relatively short period. serbia is also facing work on the “ green agenda ”. as for the nbs, i can promise that we will not allow the activities of the central bank to be the basis for any greenwashing, whereby funds intended for environmental projects are used for other purposes. considering that this forum is intended to be a “ two - way street ”, i invite everyone present to give their contribution by personal example, because it is not only economic policy makers that should be aware of this, but also each and every individual. we all can and must give our contribution. you will also talk about digital economy and creative industry. i am sure that ana will speak about how far serbia has come in this field, because the task of the institutions is to make people ’ s lives and business easier so that they can use time, as the most precious resource, in the best way possible. for more than two and a half years now, payment service users in serbia can make instant payments quickly, safely and easily, at any time, from any place. payees also receive funds quickly. this is possible thanks to the cutting - edge technology of the nbs ips system, in which, since october 2018, around 47 million transactions have been executed, with a total value of around rsd 445 bn. for us, this is the only real indicator that instant payments have become the standard quality of service for payment service users in serbia. we all also quickly got used to the possibility to pay in just a few seconds monthly bills of the largest service providers with the standardised