At the end of 2022, the National Bank of Serbia (hereinafter referred to as the: ,,NBS”) announced the introduction of bills of exchange in the form of an electronic record, with the aim of achieving greater efficiency and speed of business. The plan is that the mentioned service so-called the e-bill of exchange will be implemented this year, as stated by the NBS.
Users of banking services should be able to create and fill out electronic bills of exchange within their account in the user application that the NBS will develop (hereinafter referred to as the: ,,Central Register of E-bills”), to register them, transfer them to creditors and charge them. Users will be able to access the mentioned application via electronic or mobile banking. The Central Register of E-bills will be managed by the NBS and will represent an upgrade of the existing Register of Bills of Exchange managed by the NBS.
Furthermore, the NBS points out that electronic bills of exchange will be used alongside paper bills of exchange, and that there is no intention to abolish paper bills of exchange. As bill of exchange represent strictly formal securities, the essential elements of which are prescribed by the Law on Bill of Exchange (hereinafter referred to as the: ,,the Law“), therefore, electronic promissory notes will also contain all the essential elements prescribed by the Law.
As explained on the NBS website, the digital bill registration process will consist of several steps:
- Checking the formal correctness of the completed elements of the e-bill of exchange,
- Checking the validity of the qualified electronic signature,
- Confirmation of sending the request for e-bill registration,
- Sending an e-bill of exchange registration request to the bank,
- Registration of e-bill of exchange.
After the registration of the electronic bill of exchange, there will be the possibility of transferring the e-bill of exchange to the bill of exchange creditor by entering data about the bill creditor with confirmation of the transfer at the bill debtor’s bank. Furthermore, the bill creditor will have the option to complete the e-bill of exchange in accordance with the bill authorization, to further transfer (endorse) the bill of exchange, send the bill of exchange for validation depending on the case by case, and certainly also to opt for the possibility of charging the bill of exchange.
The advantages that digitalization of the bill can bring us are numerous, starting with faster and simpler operations, lower costs for the issuer of the bill of exchange, the impossibility of losing and ruining the bill, faster and easier access to data related to the registered bill of exchange.
It remains to be seen whether in 2024 the IT system and solutions will be implemented and completed, as well as relevant legislation, which will enable the mentioned e-bill of exchange service.
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