serbia is implementing a responsible and sustainable economic policy. this would help serbia to adjust to changes in the international environment at the lowest cost and to become more resistant to potential external shocks. the nbs is cautious in monetary policy easing, aware of the risks emanating from the international environment – the weakening of global liquidity brought about by the abandonment of unconventional monetary policy measures by central banks of developed countries and the tightening of geopolitical tensions. as negative effects of the above risks on the country ’ s risk premium and foreign trade flows have failed to materialise and the financial market has responded positively to the announced economic policy measures of the new government, the nbs cut the key policy rate to 9. 0 % at the may meeting with the aim of stabilising inflation at a low level. finally, allow me to emphasise that we are obliged to take responsible measures and implement reforms in order to resolve the problems that we face. this is the only way in bis central bankers ’ speeches which we can create a healthy and prosperous economy that we aspire to – an economy characterised by low inflation, a stable financial system and high employment. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

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