Dušan Lalić, President of the FIC Financial Services Committee (Generali Osiguranje Srbija a.d.o.)

We Won’t Return To Old Ways

In the focus of our committee will be helping the regulator, through proposals for amending regulations, to introduce the full digitalisation of our business operations.

The Foreign Investors Council recently gained it own Financial Services Committee. There were several motives for establishing this new committee. One was to unburden the Legal Affairs Committee, which covered topics encompassing banking and the financial sector. The second motive was to create financial unity on issues that relate to this sector. Thus, when united we ease the addressing of regulatory bodies and create a more efficient way for us to communicate with the state. I consider that as a good solution that represents a great way to introduce problems and issues that concern the sector as a whole.

When it comes to the digitalisation of financial services, we can note that COVID-19 compelled us to work differently and imposed plenty of challenges on us. What is certain is that we won’t be returning to the old ways. Here I primarily mean that it will be ever less necessary to physically go to the branches of banks or insurance companies, and that our sector will work towards almost everything being conducted digitally. Of course, this does not mean that branches will be closed completely. Rather this means that they will have to enable their clients to also access the services they provide digitally. In this aspect, digital business operations represent a great challenge both for us and for the regulator. For the regulator, it implies introducing complete digitalisation through regulations, i.e. the possibility of 100% remote communication between us and our clients. This will be the main focus of this committee, in order to help the regulator introduce full digitalisation to our operations through proposed amendments to regulations. Likewise, most companies belong to international groups and that provides us with the possibility of presenting comparative legal solutions, in the region and in Europe, to the state.

Another of the things that this committee will also work on is the creation of a traditional annual conference of the financial sector. The idea is for all stakeholders in the financial services sector and representatives of state bodies (the National Bank of Serbia, Ministry of Finance, Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering etc.) to meet in one place and discuss all open issues and exchange their stances. This conference would also provide an opportunity for the financial sector to present future challenges and plans to regulators. In conclusion, the aim of the conference would be to ensure that special guests from abroad always come to talk about contemporary topics from the financial sector.