Multilateral interchange fees in Serbia and their impact on card payment systems development

The establishment of policies and incentives for the issuance and card acceptance worldwide is the necessary basis for the development of card based payment instruments. Multilateral interchange fees (MIF) played a major role in creating the appropriate sets of incentives for acceptance and issuance while balancing the interests of market participants. The goal of this paper is to present the developments in the area of MIF regulation across the European Member States, as well as in Serbian payment cards market, and to suggest the way forward towards possible Serbian payment systems participation in the Single European Payment Area (SEPA) in the future.