Is the Central Bank Taking Over the Credit Bureau from the Association of Serbian Banks?

Nearly two decades after the Association of Serbian Banks (ASB) founded the Credit Bureau, which keeps records of retail and corporate borrowing, it will go to the hands of the National Banks of Serbia (NBS), Forbes Srbija learns.

This important financial body started working in 2004 as the organizational part of the ASB, based on the Founding Contract between the banks and the Association. That same year, the Credit Bureau started issuing reports for citizens, and in 2006, it also started issuing reports for legal persons and entrepreneurs.

According to the source of Forbes Srbija, well familiar with the events at the ASB, the “moving” of the Credit Bureau under the roof of the NBS has been prepared for months.

According to the source, this has caused concern among the employees at the ASB and the profession itself, and there’s also the question of the technical adaptation of the operations of the Credit Bureau to the National Bank system.

– The Credit Bureau is the heart of the Association when it comes to income, because more than 90% of the income of the ASB comes from the Bureau. The membership fees that the banks pay to the Association are not too significant, because they are barely 10% of the financing of the ASB. When the Credit Bureau exits the ASB, the association will be left without a large part of its income – the source says.

Furthermore, as the source points out, there is the question of what happens with the expert part of the Associations, which encompasses discussions, deliberations and initiatives of the various bank boards.

– HR and retail boards, or boards for harmonizing the business operations and implementing the banking regulations meet at the Association of Banks regularly. Those discussion are very important for the profession, because they often entail the harmonization of the banking sector with a change and a practical implementation of some NBS regulation or the harmonization of the joint initiatives of the banks – the source of Forbes Srbija explains.

According to the source, this part of the ASB is very worried about its survival after the “separation” of the Credit Bureau.

– It would be disastrous for the profession, because the Association of Banks is a place where representatives of the banks form joint positions, initiate certain questions and launch initiatives that are important for the whole sector.

– The aim of the National Bank is to control everything and put everything it can under its supervision. It has done so, for example, with the Dina pay card which it issues. There is no other example in the world of the central bank issuing a payment card. So, it’s not surprising that the NBS plans to put the Credit Bureau under its roof – Dugalic say for Forbes Srbija.

He also emphasizes that the ASB formed the Credit Bureau and that they have been praised for its work by relevant institutions. “Both the IMF and the World Bank called the Credit Bureau the best in Europe. I don’t understand why something that functions so well is being moved from the institution in which it has been for two decades.”

Dugalic also says that the companies E-smart and Belit have been in charge of IT solutions in the work of the Credit Bureau. Both companies develop, design, produce, install, integrate and implement IT solutions.

– There are operating rules in the work of the Credit Bureau that they have set. I hope that those same companies will also work on implementing IT solutions in the NBS as well, because the National Bank can’t take over the Credit Bureau just like that and “shift” it to its software – Dugalic believes.

Forbes Srbija has also asked the NBS questions about the potential moving of the Credit Bureau to the NBS. Although they have not explicitly denied or confirmed these findings, they believe that everyone would benefit from it.

– If and when the realization of this project – from which the citizens and the economy, but also the banks and all other participants in and the users of the financial system in Serbia, would have a considerable benefit in the form of safe, precise and up-to-date records – potentially happens, the public will be notified on time – the NBS said for Forbes Srbija.

Udruženje banaka Srbije

Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

Ekonomski Fakultet Kragujevac

Association of Serbian Banks

ASB

National Bank of Serbia

NBS

Credit Bureau

Vladimir Vasić

Veroljub Dugalić