Montenegro has become the country with the lowest costs for cross-border payments to the European Union after joining the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) in October 2025, according to the latest World Bank report. This shift marks a dramatic improvement from its position in 2025, when Montenegro had some of the highest cross-border payment costs among Western Balkan economies.
The third edition of the World Bank’s study Measuring the Cost of Cross-Border Business-to-Business Payments in the Western Balkans shows that after Montenegro’s SEPA integration, cross-border transfers between Montenegrin businesses and EU partners have become significantly faster and cheaper, with transaction costs now among the lowest in the region.
The report highlights that transfers from Montenegro to EU countries for €5,000 typically incur fees of about 0.04 – 0.05 percent of the transaction value. For larger transfers of €20,000, costs drop to below 0.01 percent, placing Montenegro on par with the most efficient payment markets in the EU. Similar cost reductions have been recorded for payments from the EU into Montenegro.
World Bank data also show that the speed of payments has improved sharply over the past year: the share of cross-border transactions processed within 24 hours from the EU to the Western Balkans rose from 6 percent in 2024 to 63 percent in 2025, while the share from the Western Balkans to the EU increased from 39 percent to 74 percent over the same period.
The findings underline the benefits Montenegro has gained from SEPA membership, including lower transaction costs, greater predictability for businesses, reduced trade barriers with EU markets, and enhanced competitiveness for Montenegrin companies across the single European market.
Montenegro formally became an operational SEPA member on 7 October 2025, adopting a model that included fee limits designed to ensure that citizens and businesses quickly experienced the advantages of faster and cheaper cross-border payments.
The Central Bank of Montenegro has said it remains committed to further modernizing payment infrastructure and improving the efficiency and accessibility of payment services in line with European standards.
