What it is
Under Serbia's 2025 Law on the Protection of Financial Services Users, banks must offer reasonable measures to a borrower who, while the loan contract is in force, has fallen into serious financial difficulty or faces another significant circumstance beyond their control. The NBS decision on credit repayment relief, adopted in September 2025, sets out the procedure. It is neither an automatic debt write-off nor one standard benefit: the bank and borrower look for a way to continue servicing the loan.
When an application can be made
The NBS expressly lists job loss, a significant reduction in income, serious illness, and an injury that reduces work capacity as typical grounds. Serious family circumstances may also matter, for example the illness or death of a spouse or child; divorce is relevant where spouses were joint borrowers or one was a guarantor. The list is not exhaustive: the key question is whether the circumstance makes regular repayment impossible.
How the process works
The borrower submits a reasoned written application to the bank, explains the facts relevant to the decision, and provides supporting documents. A bank may accept it at a branch, by email, or through its website; it must publish the exact channel and document list. The bank must also monitor early signs of repayment difficulty and may offer relief on its own initiative. It must decide within 30 days and notify the borrower in writing.
Measures a bank may offer
Possible measures include extending the repayment term, deferring payment, lowering the interest rate, a temporary payment pause, changing the contract type or obligation currency, partial repayment or debt forgiveness, and debt consolidation. The NBS list is not exhaustive, so a bank may propose another suitable measure. In the first quarter of 2026, term extensions were most common, alone or combined with a lower rate, deferral, or contract change. For a mortgage loan secured by the home where the borrower lives, the bank must, under the prescribed conditions, allow at least two months without repayment.
If the bank refuses or the offer does not work
A borrower can lodge an objection with the lender's relief commission within 10 days of a refusal or of the missed deadline. The commission decides within 30 days; where more facts need to be established, the period may be extended by 15 days with notice to the borrower. After the commission's decision, or when the deadline was not met, the borrower may complain to the NBS. The NBS examines whether the procedure was followed, but cannot order a bank to grant a particular relief measure or replace the bank's assessment of the appropriate measure.
Why it matters and the next open question
NBS first-quarter 2026 statistics cover 2,321 loans with about RSD 2.3bn in debt: relief was applied to 1,825 loans, or 79% of processed requests. Job loss was cited in 53.7% of requests and a significant income reduction in 19.2%. These figures show the mechanism's scale, but do not promise the same outcome to every borrower. The practical open question is which measure a particular bank will offer after assessing income, documents, and the ability to resume payment.