Legal Acts in English

This Law shall govern the rights of consumers of financial services provided by banks, financial leasing providers and sellers, as well as the conditions and manner of realisation and protection of such rights.

For the purpose of this Law, the following definitions shall apply:

1)    financial services shall mean banking services, financial leasing and financial deal services;

2)    banking services shall mean services provided by the bank to consumers based on credit agreement, deposit agreement, agreement on issuing and use of credit cards, agreement on authorised overdraft facility, as well as other services provided by the bank in accordance with law;

3)    financial leasing (hereinafter: lease) shall be an operation the meaning of which is established by the law governing financial leasing;

4)    insurance services, and/or services of companies managing voluntary pension funds shall mean the services prescribed by the law governing the operation of insurance companies, and/or governing voluntary pension funds and pension plans;

5)    financial deal shall mean sale where the price is repaid in instalments or other form for financing the customer that has the same economic essence, offered by the seller, which implies deferred payment of debt over a certain period;

6)    banking service provider (hereinafter: bank) shall mean the bank in terms of the law governing banks;

7)    lessor and lease object shall have the meaning as prescribed by the law governing financial leasing;

8)    seller shall mean a legal or natural person who is engaged in sale by means of a financial deal and acts on the market within its business or for other commercial purpose;

9)    financial service consumer (hereinafter: consumer) shall mean a natural person who uses or has used financial services or has addressed the financial service provider in order to use financial services, and in particular:

     1) a natural person who uses, has used or intends to use such services for the purposes which are not intended for his/her business or other commercial activity;

     2) an entrepreneur, in terms of the law governing companies;

     3) a farmer, as holder or member of a family agricultural household in terms of the law governing agriculture and rural development;

10)  credit agreement shall have the meaning as established in the law governing contracts and torts;

11)  deposit agreement shall have the meaning as established in the law governing contracts and torts;

12)  deleted

13)  revolving credit agreement shall mean a credit agreement enabling the consumer to use once approved amount of credit, over a given period of time, a number of times in the amount of unused or returned funds, where the unused part of credit is increased for the amount of repayments of such credit;

14)  deleted

15)  credit card shall mean a payment card enabling the customer to withdraw cash and pay for goods and services on credit;

16)  deleted

17)  authorised overdraft facility shall mean the agreed amount that a bank makes available to a consumer having a current account;

18)  unauthorised overdraft facility shall mean the amount used by the consumer who has a current account irrespective of the contractual relation with the bank;

19)  linked credit agreement shall mean an agreement that serves exclusively to finance procurement of specific goods or service and that along with an agreement on sale of such goods or service form a commercial unit; a commercial unit shall be deemed to exist where the creditor uses the services of the supplier for the purpose of conclusion of the credit agreement, or where the goods, and/or service that are subject to procurement are explicitly specified in such agreement; 

20)  nominal interest rate shall mean the interest rate expressed as a fixed or variable percentage applied on an annual basis to the amount of credit drawn, and/or, the net amount of lease financing, and/or, the deposit received;

21)  annual effective interest rate and effective lease fee rate (hereinafter: effective interest rate) shall express the total costs of credit and other financial services paid, and/or received by the customer, whereby such costs are expressed as an annual percentage of the total cost of such services;

22)  repayment, and/or payment schedule shall mean a table-style overview of all chronologically presented money flows, aimed at informing the consumer, so as to keep up to date with obligations related to credit, and/or lease agreement, and/or their claims related to deposit agreement;

23)  durable medium shall be a medium enabling the customer to preserve data related to him, to access such date and reproduce them in an unchanged form over the period corresponding to purpose of safekeeping;

24)  professional care shall mean increased attention and skill reasonably expected in legal operations from the financial service provider when dealing with customers in accordance with the rules of the profession, good business practice and principle of fairness and conscientiousness. 

25)  representative example shall mean an example specifying all elements necessary for presenting the conditions under which a given financial service is used.

 

NOTE OF THE PUBLISHER: The provision of Article 1 paragraphs 1, 3 and 5 of the Law on Amendments and Additions to the Financial Services Consumer Protection Law (Službeni glasnik RS, No. 139/14), amending Article 2 items 2), 12), 14) and 16) of the Financial Services Consumer Protection Law, shall apply as of 1 October 2015 (see Article 43 of the Law - 139/2014-88).

Provisions of this Law shall not apply to:

1) lease agreements where the possibility of the lessee to acquire ownership on the lease object is not stipulated;

2) credit agreements, and/or financial deals concluded in the mediation procedure before the court or other state authority;

3) credit agreements, and/or financial deals where the payment of existing debt is deferred without consideration;

4) credit agreements, and/or financial deals where granted free of interest or any other charges and credit agreements, and/or financial deals under the terms of which the credit has to be repaid within three months, and/or deferred payment is agreed for up to three months and only insignificant charges are payable;

5) credit agreements, and/or financial deals secured by a pledge on movables, if the obligation of the consumer is limited to the value of the object pledged;  

6) agreements on financial deals with continuous execution whereby the seller assumes the obligation to supply a certain kind of goods, and/or provide a certain service to the consumer over a longer period, and the consumer assumes the obligation to pay the price thereof in instalments over the period of goods supply, and/or service provision.