radovan jelasic : payment card business in serbia speech by mr radovan jelasic, governor of the national bank of serbia, at the round table discussion on payment card business, belgrade, 17 september 2008. * * * distinguished members of the press, colleague bankers and hosts to this event, i would like first of all to warmly thank the organizers of this round table on payment card business for the invitation to give introductory speech and to take part in the discussions during this event. payment card business, together with the overall system of payment operations, represents the backbone of a stable and efficient financial industry of any market. supervision of these operations in serbia, however, is under the remit of the national bank. recently, we have been witnessing major, both technological and regulatory changes in the domain of payment card business equally in europe and worldwide. its significance in some economies has met and even exceeded that of payments in cash and has consequently grabbed the attention of financial market regulatory authorities and central banks. perhaps the most significant decision in this domain is the one taken by the master card ( under supervision, not to say pressure, of the european antimonopoly commission ) to cut down cross - border interchange fees down to the zero level, and hence open up a new era in the relations between payment card systems, financial market regulatory authorities, banks and traders in europe and worldwide. besides, the initiative of the european commission and the european central bank to develop a new european payment card system within the implementation of the sepa agreement ( if you ’ ll permit me to boast a bit, following in the footsteps of our “ dina card ” ) and to do so now when visa and master card have already established strong positions for themselves, shows how important payment cards have become for the stability of payments systems, not only from the financial, but also from the social point of view. today, we shall also attempt to discuss current issues prevailing in our economy. one of the topics of discussion ( and often a bone of contention ) between the nbs and commercial banks in the course of several recent years has been the treatment of payment cards and debit card overdrafts. i sincerely hope we shall see further discussions on this matter as they strongly contribute to the improvement of the quality of the system. on our part, i wish to reaffirm the position of the nbs to continue its best efforts begun six years ago to promote further intense development of the card business in serbia.

radovan jelasic : the national bank of serbia – accomplishing its objectives speech by mr radovan jelasic, governor of the national bank of serbia, on the occasion of consecration of the new office building of the national bank of serbia, belgrade, 10 october 2006. * * * your eminences, reverend bishops, esteemed guests and dear colleagues, it is an honour for me to share with you all the joy of this historical moment of consecration of the new office building of the national bank of serbia. i hope that this will also mark a peaceful and blessed start of work in this beautiful building, after rather tumultuous two decades. i believe that this festive atmosphere may be a good time to remind ourselves once again of what our legal obligation to serbian citizens is, with regard to preserving the stability of the national currency and building an efficient financial system. the construction of this building began in the former yugoslavia, and was completed in today ’ s serbia. no one believed it was possible to finish such building and put it into use in a short time. and yet, we did it. in only three years, we renovated and completed the work which had remained unfinished during the previous fifteen or so years. this is yet another proof that the national bank of serbia always accomplishes the objectives it sets. similarly, our claim that we will succeed in transforming a completely ruined banking system into a sound and financially strong one, in which ownership has been transformed and which both citizens and economy will trust, was greeted by the same sort of disbelief. today, new foreign currency savings in banks amount to more than eur 3 billion, and in only eight months this year the sum of credits increased by around csd 100 billion. serbia ’ s strength today is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that this year ’ s foreign direct investments amounted to almost usd 4 billion, bringing us a strong dinar, which many of our fellow citizens still view with distrust, even after all this time. a similar thing happened when the national bank of serbia was entrusted with insurance supervision and when it confirmed in practice that, just like in the banking sector, it will ensure the enactment of the necessary regulatory framework, control of participants in the insurance market, supervision of their operations, consumer protection and conditions for stable development of this sector. six months ago, when monthly inflation stood at over 1. 5 % and the national bank of serbia, despite this, asserted that it was possible for this year ’