Serbia Builds Fintech Capacity Through Technology, Payments and European Integration

Serbia is developing the technological and financial infrastructure needed to support a larger fintech industry, with €4.552 billion in ICT service exports in 2025, expanding digital banking use, instant-payment infrastructure and deeper integration with European payment systems.

The country is unlikely to replicate the fintech models of London, Berlin or Vilnius. Its domestic market is smaller, its venture-capital environment is less mature, and established banks continue to dominate financial services. Instead, Serbia is building an ecosystem oriented toward financial technology infrastructure, with software engineering, payment systems, banking technology and access to European financial networks forming its main strengths.

This positioning could favour companies that provide technology for payments, digital banking, compliance, lending and financial automation across several markets rather than businesses focused solely on Serbian consumers.

ICT exports provide the technology base

Serbia’s fintech prospects are closely linked to the development of its wider technology sector. Engineering communities in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš have expanded over several years, supported by universities, multinational companies and domestic software businesses serving international clients.

Government data shows that Serbian ICT service exports reached a record €4.552 billion in 2025, increasing 10 per cent year on year. ICT has consequently become a significant source of export earnings for the economy. The technical requirements of fintech extend well beyond financial services expertise. Companies need capabilities in software architecture, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, data engineering and the operation of complex systems. Serbia already possesses much of this engineering capacity.

The country’s population of fewer than seven million also creates a structural incentive for companies to look abroad. Serbian fintech businesses need to develop products that can accommodate multiple languages and jurisdictions, making regional and international expansion a more immediate consideration for founders and investors.

Instant payments and digital banking expand the domestic infrastructure

A functioning fintech market requires financial infrastructure capable of supporting new services. Serbia’s National Bank of Serbia Instant Payment System (IPS NBS) has provided that foundation since its introduction in October 2018. The system operates continuously, allows dinar payments to reach recipients within seconds and supports QR payments as well as mobile and retail applications. During 2025, IPS NBS processed 109.3 million transactions, equivalent to approximately 300,000 payments per day, with average execution taking about one second.

Digital banking has expanded alongside instant payments. By mid-2025, Serbia had 4.8 million registered mobile-banking users, up 12.1 per cent from the previous year, while electronic-banking registrations reached 4.7 million. The expansion continued in 2026. In the first quarter, customers carried out 69.8 million payments through mobile and electronic banking, an increase of 12.7 per cent compared with the same period of 2025. Mobile-banking transactions alone increased by more than 28 per cent. The scale of digital banking use creates a domestic base for additional financial services, including personal financial management, merchant services, digital identity, fraud prevention, SME finance and embedded payments.

Open banking creates new opportunities for financial technology providers

Changes to Serbia’s regulatory framework are also widening the potential role of independent fintech companies. Amendments to the Law on Payment Services, applicable from May 2025, introduced payment-initiation and account-information services and established corresponding categories of regulated providers. The changes provide the legal basis for an open-banking market in which licensed third parties can use bank-account data and initiate payments on behalf of customers.

The potential applications extend beyond consumer-facing financial products. SMEs could use open banking to consolidate accounts across different banks, automate cash-flow monitoring and simplify credit assessments. Lenders could use permissioned transaction data when assessing businesses with limited collateral, while accounting platforms could connect payments with invoices and reconciliation processes.

Merchants could also gain alternatives to conventional card transactions. The regulatory framework itself does not guarantee the development of these services. Banks need to provide dependable technical access, licensing requirements must remain workable for emerging providers, and customers must be willing to share financial data with third parties.

SEPA strengthens links with European payment markets

Serbia’s integration with the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) provides another important element of its financial-technology infrastructure. The country became a SEPA member in May 2025. By May 2026, 18 of Serbia’s 19 operating banks, together with the National Bank of Serbia in its role serving public-sector users, were executing euro payments according to SEPA standards.

For businesses and households, the development is expected to improve the speed and cost of euro payments. For technology companies, it provides a framework that can make Serbian financial products easier to connect with European customers, infrastructure and business partners. Cross-border payment costs and settlement delays have historically created challenges for businesses in the Western Balkans, particularly smaller exporters, freelancers, software agencies and online merchants.

The closer connection with European payment infrastructure creates potential for products covering treasury management, invoicing, foreign-exchange optimisation and cross-border business payments. It also strengthens Serbia’s position as a development and operational base for businesses targeting wider European markets. SEPA membership does not make Serbia an EU member or remove all regulatory and commercial barriers, but it reduces some of the separation between the country’s financial system and the European economic area it increasingly serves.

Serbian technology companies target financial infrastructure

Existing Serbian technology businesses indicate where the country’s fintech strengths may be concentrated. ASEE provides enterprise software for banking, finance, telecommunications and the public sector, including digital banking, security, data and payments. The company says it serves more than 1,200 clients across more than 50 countries.

Payten, which emerged from ASEE’s payments business, provides processing, e-commerce, ATM and point-of-sale technology to financial institutions and merchants. Its regional operations illustrate a business model centred on specialised technology, business-to-business customers and multi-country deployment. Financial infrastructure providers operate differently from consumer fintech companies built around rapid customer acquisition. Their development can involve lengthy sales cycles, complex integrations and relationships based on reliability, but those technical and operational requirements can also make their services more difficult to replace.

Serbia’s engineering base is suited to this model. The same capabilities can be applied to anti-fraud systems, regulatory technology, identity verification, blockchain infrastructure and automation tools for banks, where technical expertise and financial-sector knowledge are important.

Public programmes support innovation while private capital remains necessary

Serbia has expanded its institutional support for innovation through science and technology parks, startup centres and public funding programmes. The Serbia Accelerating Innovation and Growth Entrepreneurship project combines domestic reforms with support from the European Union and World Bank. In 2024, the World Bank approved an additional €25 million for the programme, focusing on connections between researchers and businesses, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and mobilisation of private capital.

Such programmes can assist companies as they move from technical development toward commercial operations, but public funding does not replace a mature investment market.

Fintech companies require capital for software development as well as licensing, compliance teams, market entry and relationships with regulated financial institutions. Serbia therefore needs investors willing to support companies through longer development cycles. Talent retention is another factor. Serbian engineers can work remotely for foreign employers, relocate to larger technology centres or establish businesses elsewhere. Competitive pay is one consideration, alongside access to ambitious domestic projects, investment capital and credible opportunities to expand internationally.

SMEs provide a domestic testing market

Serbia’s relatively small domestic market can also serve as an environment for testing fintech products before regional expansion.

SMEs represent a significant potential customer base for services that simplify payments, liquidity management, transaction reconciliation and working-capital access. Combining open-banking data with instant-payment infrastructure could enable products for businesses that are too small for customised corporate banking but more complex than conventional retail banking customers.

Digital lending represents another potential area of development, although credit assessment and consumer protection remain important requirements. Faster access to financing does not remove the need for responsible underwriting. Banks are also likely to remain central to the country’s fintech ecosystem. Partnerships between technology companies and established financial institutions could allow banks to modernise while providing startups with distribution channels and regulatory expertise. Such cooperation could also enable products developed for the Serbian market to become launch platforms for services subsequently offered in other countries.

Regulation, investment and European expansion remain key requirements

Serbia has assembled several components of a fintech ecosystem, but regional leadership will depend on further development of its regulatory, investment and commercial environment. The country needs consistent regulation, reliable access to open-banking infrastructure and licensing procedures proportionate to the risks associated with different financial technology businesses. Stronger connections among banks, startups and universities are also required, alongside greater access to later-stage investment and support for domestic companies entering European markets.

The most significant opportunity may lie in defining a distinct position within Southeast Europe’s financial technology industry. Rather than concentrating on the number of consumer fintech applications launched domestically, Serbia can build on its engineering capabilities and existing financial infrastructure to develop payment, banking and compliance technologies for export.

The underlying indicators include €4.552 billion in ICT exports in 2025, substantial use of instant payments, expanding mobile banking, the development of open-banking regulation and Serbia’s integration into SEPA. These developments establish the infrastructure on which Serbian companies can develop and export financial technology products, while the country’s engineering capacity provides a base for serving financial institutions and customers across European markets.