TABAKOVIC: New laws for more efficient use of loans

Jorgovanka Tabakovic (Photo: YouTube/screenshot)

Jorgovanka Tabakovic, the governor of the National Bank of Serbia, stated that the aim of amendments to four financial laws whose drafts had been published was to provide better protection for citizens and enable a more efficient use of financial services.

- Amendments to the Law on the Protection of Users of Financial Services and the Law on Foreign Currency Operations as well as new laws on insurance and payment services must be aimed at improving the life of citizens and the efficiency of use of bank loans. Without this objective, they are pointless and worthless - Tabakovic told Tanjug news agency.

When asked what changes were planned to be made to the Law on the Protection of Users of Financial Services, the governor said that the aim was to protect the citizens who had been taking out loans prior to the promulgation of that law because it cannot be applied retroactively.

Namely, this law was put into effect on 5 December 2011 and it applies to all citizens who have used financial services after that date, discriminating against all others.

Speaking about bad results of the banks in 2013, she noted that the citizens had nothing to worry about because the domestic sector was still stable, highly liquid and adequately capitalized.

She reminded that the NBS had already created conditions over the past two years for the transfer of non-performing loans from banks to other companies specialized in collecting such debts, regardless of their ownership structure.