The instant payment system, where the moment a payment has been made the money is immediately transferred to the seller’s account, should be launched in Serbia on 22nd October.
The money changes hands the moment that a payment is made, so invoices can be paid at any time of the day, night, weekends, and holidays, while liabilities will be settled at the same time, without any negative consequences for the customer like, for instance, having their phone disconnected because the payment of their bill did not go through immediately.
Although this Instant Payment System, launched by the National Bank of Serbia, will become operational on 22nd October, the banks in Serbia will have until 1st April next year to adapt to it.
Want to open a company in Serbia? Click here!
The new method of payment includes new, modern technological solutions. Customers will be able to pay for services and goods through special applications on their mobile phones.
“The NBS has envisaged that instant payment at the point of sale is done using the IPS QP code, which will be standardized for all banks, in order to enable interoperability. Payment service providers will offer their clients, both shoppers and vendors, the use of applications that will enable such payment”, the Serbian central bank explains.
Today, retail outlets are allowing payments only in cash or via payment cards, so the choice of payment models is rather reduced.
“By introducing instant payments, vendors will have more choice that is, to decide to accept an instant payment, especially taking into account the costs and fees that certain payment methods are imposed on them. Instant payments are more cost-effective than card payments. In addition, instant payment infrastructure is independent of the existing payment card infrastructure”, the NBS points out.
“Instant payments can be done not only via smart phones but also via tablets that have to have an installed application of the vendor’s bank in order for the buyer to be able to use the IPS QP code”, the NBS goes on to say.
“Instant payment is currently the most up-to-date and the most attractive form of payment for shoppers. Instant payments enable you to have all the benefits which include constant cash availability, transactions are executed in just a few seconds, reduced risk of misuse, avoidance of high costs associated with cash management and shadow economy”, the NBS underlines.
Advantages of instant payments
The NBS analysis shows that instant payments are both advantageous and cost-effective. Thus, if we take as example a transaction in the amount of 1.000 dinars, in the case of card payments, the vendor will receive, on average, 980 dinars. With regard to instant payments, according to IPS, for each transaction over 600 dinars, the fee is two dinars, and for transactions up to 600 dinars, only one dinar. There is also a 0.2% interbank fee on the transaction amount, so, for instance, a 1,000 dinar transaction will cost the vendor’s bank four dinars”, the NBS said.
(Vecernje Novosti, 27.08.2018)
This post is also available in: Italiano