Distribution of free Dina cards to citizens begins

All citizens who have a current account open in a bank have the right to a free Dina card beginning with August 17.

Banks, however, are not obliged to issue a Dina card to clients until their current cards, issued by those banks, expire.

This is defined by the new Law on Interbank Compensations, adopted by the parliament in June. The implementation of the pertinent part of the law began on August 17.

Citizens will also be able to get foreign exchange cards they had accounts on – Visa or Mastercard – reissued by the bank at a request.

The Dina card can be used abroad as well, through the biggest Chinese corporation for finance services and card payments China UnionPay (CUP), in 160 countries of the world.

– The bank doesn’t have to issue the Dina card until your current card expires. The NBS has chosen this model so as to avoid the rush to have all the cards replaced, as it would lead to crowding and is a demanding task – the NBS told Tanjug earlier.

As many as 97% of the total number of card transactions in Serbia are payments within the country, and only 3% are payments abroad. Still, the entire processing of these transactions is carried out in payment systems outside of Serbia, and the country’s institutions do not have any supervision over it.

In addition to improving the transparency and the supervision, the law aims to reduce the high costs of card payments, that is, the interbank fee, which amounts to around 1.1 to 1.2% on average in Serbia, sometimes exceeding 2%.

The idea is to reduce the burden on the traders who would balance their costs by raising the price of goods and services, which citizens having to suffer the consequences.

Until now, the costs were transferred to the trader, whereas the trader would transfer them to the price of goods and services, the NBS explains.

According to the analyses of the NBS, the expenditures of the banking sector toward international card systems amounted to over EUR 30 million in 2017, which means that around EUR 100 million has left the country in the past three years alone.

When payments are made with Dina cards, the expenditure for an average transaction of RSD 1,800 in the Serbian market is RSD 2.16, which is practically paid to the budget through the NBS, whereas the expenditure toward the two biggest card brands used in Serbia for the same type of transaction is 8.2 and 12 dinars, and the money is directly siphoned from Serbia.

Act 9 of the Law on Interbank Compensations came into effect on August 17, as per the announcement by the NBS.

The share of card transactions in total cashless payments in Serbia, they remind, is constantly increasing. It now amounts to around 57%, of which 87% of dinar transactions through payment cards are wholly realized in payment systems abroad.

Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

VISA CEMEA HOLDINGS LIMITED-Ogranak u Beogradu

Predstavništvo Mastercard Europe Beograd

NBS

National Bank of Serbia

Law on Interbank Compensations

Dina card

issuing Dina cards

China UnionPay

CUP

payment transactions in Serbia

payment system of Serbia

use of payment cards

Visa

Mastercard

card payment costs