National Assembly of Serbia adopts set of laws on investment funds – Improved access to sources of finance for companies

The National Assembly of Serbia has adopted the Law on Open Investment Funds with a Public Offer, the Law on Alternative Investment Funds and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Deposit Insurance.

Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said that the set of laws pertaining to the participation and the development of investment funds in the Serbian capital market was a further incentive to securing even better conditions for drawing more participants to the market, as well as for improved access to sources of finance for companies.

According to him, the Law on Open Investment Funds regulates only the open investment funds with a public offer, which invest in transferrable securities, and the companies which manage such funds, whereas all other funds and forms of management of such funds are regulated by the Law on Alternative Investment Funds.

– Creating a sound regulatory framework is the driving force for the further development of the private and the public sector in the country. The point is to upgrade the capital market, whereby the local market becomes even more attractive to foreign and local investors – Mali said, as announced on the government’s website.

The development of the capital market, as he explained, is necessary, as the economic progress of the country, that is, the growth of the GDP, is conditioned on the development of the capital market. For this reason, in mid-2019, the Ministry of Finance founded a working group with the task of creating the Strategy for Development of the Capital Market.

Mali said that the European future was Serbia’s strategic goal and that the development of the capital market was an important requirement for meeting the obligations within the negotiation chapter 9 – Financial Services, in the sense of harmonization of local regulations with those of the EU.

He pointed out that, when it comes to the most important changes in the Law on Open Investment Funds, the defining of investment units had been done in line with the EU law.

– We have envisaged the introduction of the main and the side fund, and with the commission’s authorization, the side open fund will be able to invest at least 85% of its property in the main fund – he explained.

Mali said that, with the Law on Amendments to the Law on Insurance Deposit, the deposit insurance system was further harmonized with the international practice and standards, as well as the legal acquis of the EU.

Narodna skupština Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Siniša Mali

Law on Open Investment Funds with a Public Offer

Law on Alternative Investment Funds

Law on Amendments to the Law on Deposit Insurance