On 13 October 2020, a Draft Law on Digital Assets was published by the Serbian Ministry of Finance for public consultation, which will be open until 28 October 2020. The Draft was prepared by an intersectoral task force comprising the Ministry of Finance, Office of the Prime Minister, National Bank of Serbia, Ministry of Economy, Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Securities Commission, with the support of Digital Serbia and Serbian Blockchain Initiative. Respondents are encouraged to provide comments to the email address digitalnaimovina@mfin.gov.rs, until 28 October 2020.
The Draft defines digital assets, also referred to as cryptoassets or virtual assets as digital value records that can be digitally bought, sold, exchanged or transferred and that can be used as a means of exchange or for investment purposes. It regulates the issuing of digital assets and secondary trading in digital assets, the provision of services in connection with digital assets, pledges over digital assets, special AML measures related to digital assets and initial public offerings of digital assets in Serbia.
The Draft introduces a favorable regime for issuing of financial instruments in the form of digital tokens (with limitations regarding shares and value). Moreover, smart contracts have been explicitly permitted. The supervision over implementation of this law is entrusted to the National Bank of Serbia and the Securities Commission respectively.
The Draft introduces a favorable regime for issuing of financial instruments in the form of digital tokens (with limitations regarding shares and value). Moreover, smart contracts have been explicitly permitted. The supervision over implementation of this law is entrusted to the National Bank of Serbia and the Securities Commission respectively.
The Ministry of Finance has issued a release stating that the businesses will have more innovative opportunities for the development, such as issuing investment tokens in order to raise capital or launching platforms for the exchange of digital assets.
The Draft Law and the call for public consultation together with the form for providing comments are available in Serbian, on the following page:
Form
Public consultation call