The Central Register was established pursuant to the Law on the Central Register of Temporary Restrictions of Rights of Entities Registered with the Serbian Business Registers Agency (RS Official Gazette No 12/2015 – hereinafter: Law). It is a centralized repository of systematically collected data on business entities and their owners, directors, members of supervisory boards and other bodies that have had criminal, civil or administrative sanctions imposed against them. The aim is to improve transparency of doing business in Serbia and increase security of business transactions among all market players.

The Law applies as of 1 June 2016.

The grounds for temporary restriction entail the following measures:

  1. injunctions, restrictions or precautionary measures with respect to carrying on registered business activities or operations;
  2. injunctions preventing the disposal of money;
  3. injunctions restricting responsible executives in a legal person or sole traders from practicing their duties or professions;
  4. injunctions or restrictions with respect to the disposal of shares or other restrictions pursuant to regulations governing the legal status of companies;
  5. measures foreseen by regulations governing tax proceedings and tax administration;
  6. measures imposed in a procedure instigated by the bodies of inspection control,
  7. measures revoking authorizations, licenses, permits, approvals, concessions, subsidies, incentives or other entitlements provided for by special laws;
  8. other measures in accordance with the law. 

Identification data on a legal entity with temporarily restricted rights are available on the SBRA’s website, while data on individuals who have had injunctions and security measures imposed against them in court proceedings are not in the public domain and may only be obtained in line with regulations governing criminal records.

Data registration authorities and data reporting authorities

All state authorities that have a role in the system of registration of persons with temporarily restricted rights are divided into two basic categories:

  1. a data reporting authority is responsible for delivering data or documents on an entity with temporarily restricted rights, stipulated by this law, to the SBRA, in electronic format, using electronic services, for the purpose of registering these in the Central Register;
  2. a data registration authority is responsible for entering the data on a person with temporarily restricted rights, stipulated by this law, into the Central Register through the Unique interoperability platform (UIP).

The terms and conditions for the electronic processing and use of the data are stipulated in the by-laws of the line Minister of Economy.