The NBS, as the operator of the DinaCard system, informs citizens that contactless payments with the DinaCard payment card have now been enabled.
This means that all new DinaCard payment cards issued (and reissued) by banks will have the contactless functionality, enabled since 1 June 2024.
The issuance of contactless DinaCards was preceded by comprehensive activities of the NBS and banks, to facilitate the acceptance of contactless cards at all POS in the country. In accordance with the plan and announcements, in the first half of the year, the acceptance of contactless DinaCards in the acceptance network (at POS) was enabled, followed by the certification of all banks participating in the DinaCard system for the issuance of contactless DinaCard cards, whereafter banks started issuing contactless DinaCards to users.
Within the DinaCard system, banks are now issuing all types of products with contactless technology &ndash; DinaCard single cards (cards intended exclusively for domestic use) and DinaCard-Discover cards, and as of recently also DinaCard-UnionPay cards.
In addition to the ease of use and practicality, contactless DinaCards allow their users to pay at POS without entering a PIN for amounts less than RSD 6,000, while for higher-value transactions, it will be necessary to enter a PIN at POS, which is an important aspect of security.
As part of activities to preserve and strengthen financial stability, the NBS implements measures aimed at easier and cheaper access to cashless payments, among other things, by introducing and designing domestic payment instruments, bearing in mind that the stability of the national payment system is part of the country&rsquo;s overall financial stability.
One of the strategic measures aimed at improving cashless payments in the country is the establishment and management of the national card system. Using a national payment card brings significant benefits and advantages for society as a whole, and for this reason, national card systems are present in a large number of advanced markets in the world &ndash; Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Norway, Belgium, etc., and the importance of having a national card system is multiple:
<ul>
<li>The costs incurred by banks towards national card systems are lower than international ones, and given that in practice the costs are passed on to the users &ndash; merchants (through merchant fees) and citizens (through current account maintenance services, etc.), the costs paid by society as a whole are also reduced;</li>
<li>Funds charged for national payment card services remain in the country and do not represent a cash outflow from the country, but on the contrary &ndash; they contribute to the national economy;</li>
<li>Services are tailored to local needs;</li>
<li>The independence of the financial system is ensured &ndash; the carrying out of payment card transactions does not depend on the unilateral decisions of card systems (which are private companies), because the processing and netting of card transactions of international card systems is carried out outside the Republic of Serbia;</li>
<li>Domestic systems are better adapted to the needs of domestic customers and merchants through the development of new products (financial inclusion), thus making cashless payments more accessible to citizens and businesses, and one of the successful examples is paying in instalments with a debit card, as an equivalent of cheques;</li>
<li>Greater competition is ensured &ndash; the creation of monopolies and duopolies, which are characteristic of payment card markets, is prevented (banks have more choices, international card systems cannot impose unfavourable business conditions).</li>
</ul>
The DinaCard is a national card whose operator is the NBS. All DinaCards are produced in the country, by the Institute for Manufacturing Banknotes and Coins &ndash; Topčider. Guided by the principle that everything we do, we do to the benefit of our citizens and economy, in addition to activities aimed at improving the functionality of the national DinaCard, special importance is attached to the cost aspect of doing business in the DinaCard system for all participants, with the lowest card system costs (many times lower than the costs of international card systems) defined for the national card brand DinaCard.
As a result of these activities, the DinaCard is today a modern, practical, cost-effective card, at the service of users, banks, merchants and the market as a whole.
Another strategic measure, aimed at ensuring easier and cheaper access to cashless payments, is the NBS&rsquo;s initiative from June 2018, when the Law on Multilateral Interchange Fees and Special Operating Rules for Card-Based Payment Transactions was adopted, lowering the interchange fees. This resulted in a reduction in the merchant fee and an increase in the number of physical and online POS. Owing to the Law and the intense communication of the NBS with merchants about the rights and benefits that the Law brings, the merchant fee for accepting cards was reduced from an average of 2.11% in Q3 2018 to an average of 1.02% at end-2023. In this way, the costs of accepting payment cards have been significantly reduced for merchants and the prerequisites have been created so that even those merchants who have not enabled the acceptance of payment cards can do so. Based on the reduction in the average charged merchant fee, in the period from 2019 to 2023, merchants saved over EUR 300 mn. Although far-reaching effects of the Law will be more visible in the long term, the results are already measurable, and the NBS continues to collect data and analyse the movement of the amount of average charged merchant fees in the market, and monitor other effects of the Law on the market.

The NBS, as the operator of the DinaCard system, informs citizens that contactless payments with the DinaCard payment card have now been enabled...