Compliance Champions: Serbia Regulatory Framework

Delphine Forma sits down with Marko Janković, Chairman of the Serbian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to unpack how Serbia is building a modern, practical framework for capital markets and digital assets; balancing innovation, investor protection, and international alignment.

• 2021 Law on Digital Assets: What the regime requires from service providers and token issuers (business plan, org structure, regulatory capital, tech capacity, AML).
• Token vs. Virtual Asset: Why Serbia drew a line between rights-conferring digital tokens and payment-like virtual assets, and how that splits oversight with the National Bank.
• “One door” licensing: A unified process routes documentation to both authorities where needed, simplifying life for firms while keeping back-office supervision coordinated.
• Market integrity + AML first: Classic prohibitions (manipulation, insider trading) apply fully to tokens; Serbia’s AML expectations and supervision are intentionally strict and hands-on.
• Toward MiCA alignment: Serbia is progressively harmonizing with the EU framework while maintaining flexibility for its fast-growing IT/digital-asset ecosystem.

“If you look at everything regulators actually do, we’re building trust. And when trust is in place, the market can grow safely.” — Marko Janković