( such as visa ) and european institutions in order for serbia to come closer to the european level of interchange for all banking cards issued in the country. as always, we believe that the serbian chamber of commerce provides an optimal framework for the discussion between banks and merchants on this highly topical issue in europe and worldwide. the performances of the payment cards market ( 31 may 2008 ) are as follows : • number of transactions performed in serbia over the past 12 months – close to 90 million • number of pos terminals – 60, 000 thousand • number of atms – over 2, 200 • number of payments by mobile phone in the dinacard system in may – 100, 000 however, we will not let these results lull us into satisfaction ; to the contrary, they will only serve to encourage us to work more, with increased efficiency, in the following key directions : payment card charges : it will not be an overstatement to say that payment card charges are excessive and out of proportion to the actual operational costs. i am sure than many merchants would use payment cards much more readily if this form of payment did not lower their turnover by up to 3 %. and i hope we all know what 3 % means in the 21st century! payment cards, rather than being an objective in themselves, represent a means to having a more efficient banking / payment / tax ( money laundering, declaration of income ) system. the present level of margins, however, does not promote the achievement of this objective over the medium and still less over the long run. and so we arrive at the typical dilemma for banks and card systems : to keep the margins at their current level and only slowly increase the volume of transactions ; or to slash margins, inducing a super - proportional increase in turnover, which would eventually bring even higher profits than in the first scenario. the nbs will work on promoting the latter alternative as the most beneficial for all participants – and we cannot spare any more time. mobile telephony has come to play an increasingly important role in the payment system, both when it comes to local payments and to foreign remittances. by mid - 2008, there were around 9 million mobile phones registered in serbia, each of which is a potential “ payment card ”. let me remind you that the sole objective of the nbs regarding the payment system is clearly defined by the law : “ the nbs shall regulate and upgrade the payment system of the country, supervise the performance of payment transactions in banks, etc.

around six hundred thousand users are registered for the transfer service. at end - 2023 close to 4. 2 million users – individuals, legal entities and entrepreneurs were registered for e - banking service, around 2. 5 times more than at end - 2016. at end - 2023, around 4. 2 million users were registered for m - banking services, around 5. 5 times more than at end - 2016. the law on financial service consumer protection and other regulations enabled distance contracts, and the data confirm that this boosted the development of digital credit products, too. the number of signed distance contracts was over 176 thousand in 2023, which is four times more than in 2019. over a fifth of these contracts were signed using video identification of consumers, nd almost a half of them were in relation to cash loans. we also enabled bank account opening and a change of a bank without the need for visiting the old bank or even a new one. let us now move forward. 1. this year, we will complete the harmonisation with eu regulations by transposing the psd2 directive into domestic legislation, which enables open banking in the republic of serbia. 4 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches 2. alignment with the psd2 directive is a part of our preparations for joining the sepa, i. e. the single euro payments area. joining the sepa will enable the reduction of payment costs between the eu and western balkan economies, which will mean cheaper transactions for both citizens and businesses. 3. ahead of us are demanding activities concerning the development of the technical infrastructure for connecting the nbs ips system to the ecb target instant payment settlement ( tips ) scheme. to this end, we have initiated talks with the ecb. 4. the nbs ips system has also been recognised as significant by rakuten viber, with which we started cooperation, expecting instant payments to be easily initiated via viber as well. this will be an important novelty given the number of viber users in serbia. 5. we are preparing the implementation of the 3ds standard, which will further enhance the security of online payments. 6. also, within the nbs ips system we have developed a fraud management module, aimed at establishing a mechanism for detecting potential payment frauds. this module is based on adaptive machine learning and is available to all nbs ips participants that can integrate it into their information systems. the module is currently active in the nbs ips