AikBank is the first commercial bank on the Serbian market to receive official approval from the European Payments Council (EPC) to join the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). From May, the bank’s clients will be able to make euro payments to 41 SEPA member countries in just a few seconds, with fees that are multiple times lower.
According to the European Payments Council timetable, Serbian financial institutions will be able to join SEPA payment schemes from November 2025, while 4 May 2026 is listed as the date of operational readiness for payment service providers from Serbia.
For now, AikBank is the first bank to meet all the technical, security and operational standards required to participate in the SEPA area.
As a reminder, on 22 May last year, Serbia officially became the 41st member of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), marking a significant step forward in the process of economic integration with the European Union and the economies of the Western Balkans.
The SEPA system began operating in January 2008. By introducing unified and harmonised standards across all SEPA countries, differences between domestic and cross-border payments were eliminated. This significantly improved the efficiency of payment transactions, contributing to the stronger competitiveness and functionality of the European economy.
Today, SEPA enables simple, fast, secure and cheaper cashless euro payments within 41 participating countries, allowing cross-border euro payments under the same conditions as domestic payments.
Serbia will achieve the greatest savings in the Western Balkans
As Vladimir Vasić, Director of BBS Capital Investment Group, assessed in an interview with Biznis.rs, SEPA is one of the most important financial breakthroughs in the region over the past decade.
“We are currently in the phase of technical and procedural preparation of banks and payment institutions, so the full effects are not yet visible. The key benefits will become apparent from 2026 onwards. What is important to emphasise is the economic effect. My estimate is that the Western Balkans could save between 400 and 600 million euros annually through lower costs of euro payments and remittances. The largest share of this ‘pie’ belongs to Serbia, as the largest economy in the region,” Vasić pointed out.
At present, he believes, cross-border euro payments from the region are often several times more expensive than those within the EU, while SEPA effectively equalises them with domestic euro transactions in the EU, making them faster, cheaper and standardised.
“For businesses, this means lower operating costs, better liquidity and greater competitiveness. For citizens, especially those who receive remittances or work with foreign partners, it means that less money will go to banks and more will remain with people,” Vasić said.
Are banks going to benefit too?
Banks that migrate to the SEPA system will be the first to reduce long-term operating costs, secure a dominant share of the euro transactions market, and position themselves as digital service providers at a European level.
Short-term losses in fee income can be offset through efficiency gains, new revenue streams and an increased market share, as confirmed by numerous studies of the European Central Bank, said Ivan Nikolić, Research Associate at the Institute of Economics in Belgrade, in an earlier interview with Biznis.rs.
According to him, savings primarily arise from lower transaction costs, reduced transaction processing times, and increased transparency and competition in payment services.
As Nikolić explained, in order to execute transactions, payment service providers are required to join and comply with the rules of SEPA payment schemes. A prerequisite for domestic banks to carry out euro transactions is that a commercial bank operating in the Republic of Serbia accepts the terms of the relevant SEPA payment scheme for transaction execution.
“This naturally leads to the question of why commercial banks would be motivated to switch to the SEPA system when they currently earn higher fees on euro transactions. This dilemma can be viewed from several angles. First, current higher fees are a short-term phenomenon – SEPA will gradually reduce costs to a minimum. Second, regulatory pressure is enormous: the National Bank of Serbia and the European Central Bank are strictly insisting on migration. Third, banks lose customers if they do not offer cheaper and faster transactions that SEPA provides,” Ivan Nikolić emphasised.
(Biznis.rs, 22.01.2026)