On Saturday, June 6, we mark ten years since the start of SEPA payment transactions in the Republic of Croatia. This moment represented a significant step forward in modernizing the payment system by establishing key infrastructure solutions.

“This anniversary holds special meaning for us at TIS GRUPA d.o.o., as over the past ten years we have had the opportunity not only to observe, but also to actively participate in one of the key transformations of the financial sector in Croatia. It has been a period in which standards, technologies, and user expectations have changed significantly, and such changes required reliable partners and a clear shared vision,” emphasized our Director, Dženan Lojo.

At that time, the National Clearing System (NKS), aligned with the SEPA scheme and operating in accordance with the HRK SCT scheme (SEPA-like), began operations. It enabled the clearing of payment transactions in kuna until the introduction of the euro. At the same time, EuroNKS was launched—a system for clearing payment transactions in euros that remains in operation today. Both systems brought a technological leap forward, enabling the processing of payment transactions in the new, standardized ISO 20022 XML format, in line with the rules of the HRK SCT SEPA scheme. This achieved one of the key goals of the national SEPA migration project.

The introduction of SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) in the Republic of Croatia represented one of the most significant changes in domestic payment operations since the introduction of IBAN. In this process, Fina played a key operational and infrastructural role, leading the adaptation of national payment systems to new European standards and being one of the main participants in the national SEPA project.

Fina’s particular contribution was the development and adaptation of key infrastructure for clearing payment transactions, enabling Croatia to gain a unified technological platform for processing both national and cross-border SEPA payments.

This transformation enabled Croatian banks, companies, and citizens to use unified European payment standards and represented an important step in preparing the Croatian financial system for the later introduction of the euro as the official currency.

“In every business, it is important to have a partner you can always rely on, which is especially true for large and significant projects such as the establishment of payment systems whose operation must be secure and stable. In cooperation with TIS, we built a new National Clearing System (NKS) compliant with the European payment scheme, as well as EuroNKS for clearing euro transactions. TIS also provides us with reliable, expert support for our day-to-day operations, allowing us to focus on future plans with confidence. We believe our cooperation will continue for many years to come,” said Gordana Soldo, Advisor to the Management Board of Fina.

“The combination of our technological expertise and experience gained from SEPA implementation projects in the region, together with Fina’s strategic role as system owner and operator, proved crucial for success. Together, we laid the foundations of a system that today enables secure and efficient domestic and cross-border payment traffic,” concluded Dženan.

The Wheel of Digital Change

The goal of the SEPA initiative was—and remains—to establish a unified payment system in which consumers, businesses, and public authorities can make and receive payments in euros under the same basic conditions, rights, and obligations, regardless of their location.

However, SEPA has never been just a regulatory obligation. It represents a key driver that enabled the full digital transformation of payment operations in the country, bringing the Croatian market closer to high European standards of speed, security, and efficiency.

Today, SEPA includes 41 countries—five more than when Croatia joined the system: all European Union member states, as well as the United Kingdom, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, the Vatican, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Moldova, and Serbia.

For this reason, we continue to focus on innovation, reliability, and long-term partnerships. “We are ready for the challenges brought by further digitalization, the development of fintech solutions, and new generations of services that will further transform the way we manage finances,” announced Vjekoslav Martinčić.

The post A DATE THAT CHANGED HISTORY: 10 YEARS OF SEPA PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS IN CROATIA appeared first on TIS Grupa.

Nostalgia. If nothing else, a great marketing tool. This trend proves it—and clearly, we’ve fallen for it too. While we’d like to claim this is a serious analysis, the story started—much to the surprise of those still staring like a deer in headlights—with reheated tricks from beauty influencers. Back then, they were at the peak of milking their golden digital geese.

Et voilà. The algorithms went wild, and suddenly, the whole world is remembering where we were, what we were doing, and what we were dreaming about in 2016. One thing’s certain: not Trump.

In our small company, for example, we were dreading the consequences of Brexit. The referendum was just around the corner, and we happened to have a lot of work in the UK at the time. Fear of having to change power plugs tipped the scales, Britain gave Europe the boot, and yet—contrary to expectations—we still delivered solid results.

On the home front, we were bracing ourselves for the uncertainty of double elections.

Back then, we watched the price of a barrel of oil closely. Not out of curiosity, but because it was a litmus test of global health: would the economy accelerate or stall? Were stock markets rising? What was happening with GDP? And did it make sense to invest in new projects? Today, we don’t watch oil exchanges—we watch gas and electricity meters. Along with central bank interest rates, of course. Constants matter. Only the instruments of anxiety have become more sophisticated.

SEPA. Our most important constant, shaping our business trajectory for more than a decade. While China celebrated the Year of the Fire Monkey in 2016, for us it was a year of fire baptisms.

After a period of intensive development and testing, in 2016, SEPA stopped being a theory in domestic payment systems and became a production reality.
SEPA moved out of PowerPoint decks and into real payment traffic.
It was the year of Credit Transfer, with zero room for missteps given the fixed implementation deadlines.
We helped set up the new payment infrastructure in Croatia—through HRK and EUR NKS—and ensured that SEPA didn’t remain a regulatory footnote in banks but became an operational daily routine.

Fun fact: 20 years ago, we launched our payment application in Slovenia; 10 years later, we continued the mission at home; and in 2025, we were implementing SEPA infrastructure in Montenegro. An even better fun fact: our banking industry partners have remained loyal, which is why we continue to support our clients with SEPA. Plus, Montenegro and the rest of the region will establish new partnerships this year.

The post 2016 vs 2026: Where We Were, What We Dreamed Of, and What Stayed the Same appeared first on TIS Grupa.

AI buzz may have taken over the algorithms, but from time to time, it’s necessary to reset the story to factory settings. Our biggest strength has always been—and remains—the financial industry, and the crown jewel of TIS’s regionally recognized expertise is SEPA. Montenegro is now entering the SEPA payments area through the front door.

While keyboards are overheating and sore fingertips are being carefully tended to, momentum isn’t slowing down. Quite the opposite. These days, we’re simultaneously supporting the launch of several colossal SEPA projects—both in our own backyard and in new sandboxes.

Since the past few weeks have been particularly intense on the payments front, we grabbed the alpha and omega of our SEPA unit, who is coming on air with some solid news.

Vjekoslav Martinčić.

• As of October 9, 2025, all Croatian banks enable SEPA instant payments. TIS teams contributed significantly to this effort, supporting our clients in the successful implementation of instant payments alongside parallel changes to the SEPA rulebook for regular payments.
• TIS experts have experience in developing national clearing systems for regular and instant payments and actively support domestic banks through project leadership and consulting, business analysis and specification, development and implementation, as well as testing of regular and instant payments using our own tools (TIS Payments Modules and Test Creators, enhanced by AI4Payments).
• We are particularly pleased to report that, together with our partners in Montenegro, we have just completed a project implementing cross-border SEPA credit transfers for one of the largest regional banking groups.
• New regional opportunities in the SEPA domain are already on the horizon, and our payments experts are more than ready for them—so we hope to interrupt the regular news program more often with breaking updates like this.

We celebrated these successes with our partners mid-month on their home turf, brought together by the INFINTECH conference.

Dženan Lojo personally led the delegation.

• The conference brought together the very top of the regional financial industry. Opportunities to see such a dense concentration of decision-makers in one place are rare, which made this a perfect moment to present ourselves in the best possible light.
• Kudos to the organizers for a flawless job, an excellent program, and a top-tier networking environment. It would be unfair not to single out a special content highlight: the contribution of Suzanne Williams, who cut through important—but familiar—banking topics with her years of experience freeing hostages from the brink of certain death. Our industry may not be that literal, but it has a far-reaching impact on many more people. Like Susan, we don’t know the exact number of lives we’ve made easier with our solutions—but we remember damn well every moment when things got tight. Fortunately, those moments were fewer than the fingers on one hand.

The post Back to the roots: October marked by SEPA appeared first on TIS Grupa.

Your feed has been full of our AI products lately (we’ll allow ourselves to say deservedly), but our core business is still related to the financial industry. Well, it’s time to put this part of our solutions in the shop window again. One, dare we say more ingenious, is SEPA CREATOR – a tool for creating test files for SEPA functionalities.

Why ingenious? If you are (un)lucky enough to prepare for the new SEPA rulebook changes, then you are drowning in work. That is, more than usual.

“The tool has been used for years in domestic banks to facilitate the testing of all major regulatory changes in the field of payments. More recent examples are the introduction of the euro, the introduction of European payment instruments, or any other major change such as this year’s changes to the SEPA rulebook”, explains Vjekoslav Martinčić, our vice president with considerable experience in the financial industry.

It is important to note that this product is not exclusively for the Croatian market. SEPA CRATOR is a product that could make the job easier for any QA tester in the SEPA area. “The largest Croatian banks are current users of the app, and we expect that this tool will become recognized by other banks in the country and abroad in the coming period,” adds Vjeko.

 Why SEPA CREATOR?

Quite plastically, from three lines of data, with the new changes to the SEPA rulebook, we are now moving to 16 lines of data. This change will go to production by the end of November. It is introduced by all banks in the SEPA area, including national ones. Now you do the math. How much time do you have, and do you have enough people to test everything to the deadline?

  Seriously, calculate how much it would cost to create 10,000 messages manually, knowing that there is a tool executing the job flawlessly in only a few seconds.

Let’s save the QA testers!

sepa@tis.hr

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