Draft Amendments to Law on Protection of Users of Financial Services prepared: Debt counseling also regulated for first time

In order to fully align with European Union (EU) regulations, the National Bank of Serbia has prepared Draft Amendments to the Law on the Protection of Users of Financial Services. The Law on the Protection of Users of Financial Services, which was adopted a little over a year ago, as emphasized by the central bank, is largely already aligned with European Union directives on mortgage and consumer loans, and has introduced numerous innovations such as interest rate caps, the application of loan repayment incentives, better pre-contractual information, additional rights for users in the event of early loan repayment, and for the first time regulates the cross-selling of financial services, the salary policy of bank employees, advisory services, and much more.

- However, in order to ensure full alignment, it was necessary to make certain amendments that primarily concern credit intermediaries, debt counseling services, as well as the role of merchants when lending to customers through deferred payment. Apart from the fact that general rules of contract law can be applied, credit intermediation is currently not regulated. Based on experiences in comparative European practice, and within the framework of EU directives, this proposal regulates in detail the types of credit intermediation and which entities and under what conditions can provide these services, the licensing procedure, supervision, method of fee collection, etc. – the NBS points out.

In addition, as it is added, all obligations regarding pre-contractual information have been extended to traders when they approve deferred payment, loans or similar financial arrangements to customers.

– The reason for this is that in the EU a large number of traders who sell goods online offer various forms of financing for purchases, most often in the form of “buy now, pay later.” Although this form is still not significantly represented in Serbia, there is every chance that such and similar credit products will increasingly appear on our market, which need to be regulated, because they can lead to impulsive purchases and over-indebtedness of users. In any case, traders who intend to grant their customers any form of financing from their own funds, with the exception of deferred payment by cheques, will have to be licensed and will be supervised by the National Bank of Serbia. It should be emphasized here that this licensed financing of customers by traders does not include payment by bank payment cards in installments, or related consumer loans, because these are bank credit products and traders will in that situation mainly play the role of credit intermediaries – the statement emphasizes.

In addition to the previously mentioned amendments, for the first time, as highlighted, the debt counseling service is recognized and regulated. Although this service is not significantly represented in EU countries, the European Commission considers these services to be extremely important in the context of the protection of financial services users, so the Consumer Credit Directive has provided in several cases for the obligation of credit providers to refer users to these services.

– Debt counseling services will be able to be provided by licensed legal entities (including associations) and entrepreneurs, and will be supervised by the National Bank of Serbia. However, the implementation of the provisions governing these services will be further delayed, since it is expected that the European Commission will issue more precise instructions regarding the manner of providing these services in the meantime – it was emphasized.

According to the NBS, this opportunity was used to translate the experiences from the previous implementation of the law into specifying and improving the existing rules.

The NBS invites all interested parties to submit their proposals, comments and opinions to the National Bank of Serbia by June 2, 2026, to the address zastita.korisnika@nbs.rs.

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Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

National Bank of Serbia

Draft Amendments to the Law on the Protection of Users of Financial Services