2025-05-26
The National Bank of Serbia issues this Decision to establish the detailed conditions and procedures for supervising the foreign exchange operations of residents and non-residents. It mandates both off-site monitoring of reports and on-site inspections, granting authorized personnel powers to access premises, request documents, and temporarily seize assets suspected of being linked to illegal activities. The regulation further defines the process for handling supervision reports, allows for entity objections, and outlines enforcement measures including fines and account freezes for non-compliance or obstruction.
RS Official Gazette, No 41/2025 Pursuant to Article 46, paragraph 1 of the Law on Foreign Exchange Operations (RS Official Gazette, Nos 62/2006, 31/2011, 119/2012, 139/2014, 30/2018 and 19/2025) and Article 15, paragraph 1 of the Law on the National Bank of Serbia (RS Official Gazette, Nos 72/2003, 55/2004, 85/2005 – other law, 44/2010, 76/2012, 106/2012, 14/2015, 40/2015 – CC decision, 44/2018 and 19/2025), the Executive Board of the National Bank of Serbia issues the following D E C I S I O N ON DETAILED CONDITIONS AND MANNER OF PERFORMING THE SUPERVISION OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE OPERATIONS OF RESIDENTS AND NON-RESIDENTS Basic provisions
2 The decisions, reports, and other acts, as well as notifications, requests and other communications of the NBS submitted to the supervised entity in relation to the supervision referred to in this Section shall be considered to have also been submitted to the responsible person of the supervised entity and no proof to the contrary shall be admissible. When conducting supervision, the NBS shall cooperate with the Tax Administration, customs authorities, police, and/or other competent authorities. This cooperation shall mean, in particular, the exchange of data, findings and information required for the supervision. Working day, within the meaning of this Decision, is any day other than Saturday, Sunday and public and religious holiday declared non-working day in the Republic of Serbia. Off-site supervision 4. When conducting off-site supervision, the NBS may require the supervised entity to deliver reports, and/or documents, information and statements within the deadline defined in the request, concerning in particular the following:
3 The procedure after the report on off-site supervision is made shall be subject to the provisions of this Decision referring to on-site supervision. On-site supervision 6. On-site supervision shall be carried out by the NBS staff appointed by the decision of the governor or a person authorised by the governor (hereinafter: authorised persons). The decision referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section shall specify in particular: the supervised entity, the subject of supervision and the date of commencement of supervision. The decision from paragraph 1 of this Section may be supplemented and/or amended during the course of on-site supervision. On-site supervision of an entity commences with the issuance of the decision from paragraph 1 of this Section. This decision shall be delivered to the representative, and/or other authorised person of the supervised entity or other person employed by the supervised entity who happens to be in its business premises when the NBS staff arrive in those premises. In addition to the delivery referred to in paragraph 4 of this Section, the supervised entity – natural person may also be invited to the NBS’s premises to receive the decision referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section. During the on-site supervision, the authorised persons shall have with them the decision referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section and the official identification document, which will enable their identification and the determination of their capacity of persons authorised to conduct such supervision. The NBS may notify in writing the supervised entity about the initiated on-site supervision of foreign exchange operations and require the provision of information and documents necessary for the supervision. The NBS may hire other persons to take part in the on-site supervision for the purposes of providing adequate expert support to authorised persons when conducting such supervision. 7. A supervised entity shall enable unhindered supervision to an authorised person and shall cooperate with that person.
4 For the purpose of conduct of on-site supervision, a supervised entity shall provide for inspection to the authorised person the business books, documents and data required by the authorised person – in paper or electronically and shall enable unhindered and full access to equipment, data bases, computer programmes used, and/or other information system resources. If the business books, documents and data from paragraph 2 of this Section are in a language other than Serbian, the NBS may require the supervised entity to have those documents and data translated into Serbian by a court-sworn interpreter at their own cost. 8. When conducting on-site supervision, an authorised person may undertake the following actions:
5 or another punishable action, or that they have been acquired or originated from a criminal offence, misdemeanour or another punishable action. If the business books, records, documents or other documentation referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section are stored on a durable medium or other automated data processing devices, the NBS may also temporarily seize such medium and/or those devices. The authorised person shall issue a certificate on temporarily seized assets and objects referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Section. Temporary seizing of foreign exchange and dinars from paragraph 1 of this Section that are in the monetary accounts of the supervised entity shall be performed pursuant to the NBS decision ordering the blocking of these assets and their transfer to the account of the NBS. The authorised person shall immediately and no later than two working days following the seizing of assets and objects from paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Section:
6 Prevention of supervision 10. It is considered that the supervised entity failed to enable the NBS to conduct supervision within the meaning of this Decision if it did not act in accordance with Sections 4, 7 and 8 hereof or if it did not allow temporary seizure of foreign exchange, foreign currency cash, cheques, securities, dinars, electronic money, digital assets, payment cards, objects, business books, records, official documents or documentation from Section 9, paragraph 1 of the Decision, including the following cases:
7 After being served to the supervised entity and/or the responsible person in the supervised entity – legal entity, the decision from paragraph 2 of this Section shall be an enforceable document. Enforceable decisions on imposing the fine shall constitute the grounds for enforced collection from the supervised entity’s account in accordance with the law governing the enforcement of claims by debiting the client’s account. If the supervised entity has failed to comply with the order from the decision from paragraph 2 of this Section, the NBS may issue the decision from that paragraph again. Report on supervision and other documents 11. The authorised person shall prepare a report on completed on-site supervision (hereinafter: report on supervision). The report on supervision shall specifically include the following details: date of the report, subject of supervision and the relevant data, findings on established factual situation and the signature of the person who made the report. The NBS shall deliver the report on supervision to the supervised entity, which may file objections within eight working days from the day of receiving the report. The supervised entity’s objections to the report, including evidence, shall be signed by the authorised person of that entity. 12. If, by examining the objections from Section 11, paragraph 4 hereof, it establishes that the factual situation significantly differs from the situation described in the report on supervision, the NBS shall supplement the report (hereinafter: supplement to the report) and deliver it to the supervised entity within fifteen working days from receiving those objections. The NBS may verify the statements presented in the objections from this Section also directly at the supervised entity. 13. The NBS shall not consider the supervised entity’s objections relating to a change in the factual situation that occurred after the completion of supervision (cut-off date), but may consider them when issuing the order and the fines referred to in the Law and in this Decision.
8 14. If the delivered objections to the report on supervision are unfounded, if they do not substantially change the factual situation established by the supervision, and/or if they do not lead to a change in the findings of the established irregularities, the NBS shall make an official note thereof and deliver it to the supervised entity within eight working days from the day of receiving the objections. 15. The NBS may, at all times, correct the report on supervision and remove technical errors and other obvious inaccuracies. The correction of the report on supervision shall be delivered to the supervised entity. 16. The NBS shall issue a decision on the termination of supervision in the following cases:
9 The NBS shall verify compliance with the order from the decision from paragraph 1 of this Section based on the delivered report and evidence from paragraph 3 of this Section. In order to determine whether the supervised entity has complied with the order from the decision referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section, the NBS may again conduct on-site supervision of foreign exchange operations of that supervised entity. If it finds that the established irregularities were fully eliminated within the set deadline, the authorised person shall draw up an official note thereof. 18. If the supervised entity fails to comply with the decision from Section 17 of this Decision, the NBS may, in accordance with the provisions of Article 46d of the Law, issue a decision imposing a fine in respect of such supervised entity and/or its responsible person, and order such person to act in accordance with the order referred to in Section 17 of this Decision. The decision referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section shall lay down the manner and deadline for paying the fine, deadline for submitting evidence of payment of the fine, and deadline for submitting a report on executed orders, with appropriate evidence. By means of the decision referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section, the National Bank of Serbia may also order the freezing of funds in all accounts of the supervised entity until it complies with the order from that decision, except for the funds needed to pay the fine referred to in that decision and/or to settle tax obligations. After being served to the supervised entity and/or the responsible person in the supervised entity – legal entity, the decision referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section shall be an enforceable document. Enforceable decisions on imposing the fine referred to herein shall constitute the grounds for enforced collection from the supervised entity’s account in accordance with the law governing the enforcement of claims by debiting the client’s account. Where a supervised entity fails to comply with the order referred to in paragraph 1 hereof, the National Bank of Serbia may again issue the decision referred to in that paragraph. 19. When imposing the fine referred to in Sections 10 and 18 of this Decision, the National Bank of Serbia shall take into account all facts relating
10 to the supervision, and in particular the degree of cooperation of the supervised entity with authorised persons, previous conduct of the supervised entity, i.e. whether the supervised entity and the responsible person in the supervised entity had previously acted in a similar way or were fined for such action, the demonstrated readiness to comply with the order from the decision, the duration of non-compliance with the order or failure to enable the supervision, and other important circumstances which have resulted in non-compliance with the order. Confidentiality in the supervision procedure 20. The data which the authorised persons and employees in the NBS, and other persons hired within the meaning of this Decision, learn in any way during the procedure of supervision of foreign exchange operations and the documents containing such data, including the measures and fines imposed by the NBS in the supervision procedure, shall be determined and protected as confidential with the degree of confidentiality marked as "CONFIDENTIAL" or "RESTRICTED" in accordance with the law governing data secrecy. The persons referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section shall keep the data and documents from that paragraph as secret and/or shall not make them available to third parties except in the cases prescribed by the law. The obligation to preserve data secrecy for persons from paragraph 1 of this Section shall not end with the termination of their employment with the NBS and/or with the termination of another capacity based on which those persons had access to the data referred to in that paragraph. Notwithstanding paragraph 2 of this Section, the NBS may make the data and documents referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section available to domestic and foreign supervisory authorities on condition that those authorities use them solely for the purposes for which they were obtained. The publishing of the data referred to in paragraph 1 of this Section in aggregate form, so that the identity of the supervised entity, and/or of natural persons and legal entities, cannot be established on that basis, shall not be considered a breach of the data secrecy obligation. Transitional and closing provisions 21. The Decision on Conditions and Manner of Performing the Supervision of Foreign Exchange Operations of Residents and Non-Residents (RS Official Gazette, No 84/2018) shall cease to be valid as of the start of implementation of this Decision.
11 22. The procedures of supervision of foreign exchange operations of residents and non-residents initiated before 14 March 2025 shall be completed in accordance with the provisions of the regulations subject to which they were initiated. 23. This Decision shall enter into force on the eighth day from its publication in the RS Official Gazette. NBS Executive Board No 22 Chairperson 9 May 2025 of the NBS Executive Board B e o g r a d G o v e r n o r National Bank of Serbia Dr Jorgovanka Tabaković, sign.