On 22 May 2025, Serbia officially joined the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), which marks an important milestone for its financial sector and the EU integration process.
The process should result in the possibility for Serbian businesses and citizens to make and receive EUR payments with the countries within the SEPA region by using SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) and SEPA Direct Debit (SDD), resulting in faster and safer transactions and reduced transaction fees.
After this decision of the European Payment Council, Serbian payment service providers will need to perform steps to connect technically and operationally to the relevant SEPA payment schemes. The accession will be enabled starting from November 2025, with May 2026 being the earliest expected date of operational readiness.
The inclusion of Serbia in the SEPA geographical scope was preceded by the alignment of the relevant local rules, in particular in the payment system and foreign exchange payment operations, while some of the rules will become applicable from the accession of Serbia to the EU.
The information in this document does not constitute legal advice on any particular matter and is provided for general informational purposes only.
