NBS: No legal restrictions to PayPal operations in Serbia

In response to false information presented in the media over the past several days, the NBS wishes to underscore that there are no legal restrictions or regulations which limit the operation of PayPal in Serbia.

Namely, under Article 32, paragraph 2 of the Law on Foreign Exchange Operations, residents (domestic legal persons, entrepreneurs and citizens residing in Serbia) may perform international payment transactions also through a foreign e-money institution for the purposes of making payments and collections under electronic purchase/sale of goods and services. This means that residents may perform international payments and collections in a foreign currency when selling/purchasing goods and services to/from non-residents via PayPal.

Payments and collections under purchase and sale of goods and services among residents in the Republic of Serbia are not considered international payment transactions and payments are made in the dinar as Serbia’s legal tender.

Furthermore, it is not true that the foreign company PayPal requested from the NBS to enable foreign currency payments under purchase and sale among domestic natural and legal persons through its service. If this were true, it would mean that, contrary to the Constitution and laws, Serbia abandoned its national currency and introduced a two-currency system in its territory.

As a matter of fact, the NBS will endeavour to further reduce the current degree of euroisation and strengthen the role of the dinar, thus enhancing the efficiency of monetary policy in achieving and preserving the stability of prices and the financial system.

The NBS also wishes to highlight that PayPal faces no legal restrictions to offer its service to residents for payments in Serbia’s domestic payment transactions, provided it introduces the dinar in its currency list, just as it has already done with the Russian rouble, Czech koruna, Hungarian forint, Malaysian ringgit, Polish zloty, Turkish lira, Philippine peso etc. This decision depends only on PayPal, its business interests and its intention to increase the number of clients in Serbia.