National Bank of Serbia launches Central Registry enabling electronic bills of exchange from 1 December 2025

The National Bank of Serbia announced that the Central Registry of Electronic Bills of Exchange (CReM) will go live on 1 December 2025, enabling bills of exchange to be created, issued and used in electronic form alongside existing paper bills. To support the launch, the Executive Board and the Governor adopted a decision setting detailed rules for the Register of Bills of Exchange and Authorizations and amended decisions covering enforced collection from clients’ accounts and the uniform tariff for National Bank of Serbia service fees. CReM is described as a digital platform for end-to-end electronic processing, including creation, issuance, transfer, submission for collection and deletion, with data stored as part of the Register of Bills of Exchange and Authorizations, which has the legal status of a public ledger. Access will be provided through banks’ electronic or mobile banking applications using a qualified electronic signature via the ConsentID application of the Office for IT and eGovernment, while court and enforcement proceedings will rely on extracts from CReM as public and credible documents issued by the National Bank of Serbia. The National Bank of Serbia also states that total fees for issuing and using electronic bills of exchange will be lower than existing bank fees for paper bills, and clients will be able to choose between electronic and paper bills, with banks required to respect that choice. From 1 December 2025, banks must enable electronic bills of exchange for all legal entities and entrepreneurs that are their clients, and this obligation will extend to citizens from the end of November 2026.