Milica Stefanović, NALED: Trust Is Built Through Dialogue, Transparency and Results

At a time when consumers are placing less trust in big promises and increasingly demanding transparency, tangible results and consistency, the way companies and institutions communicate has become just as important as what they actually do. Speaking at the Impact SEE 2026 conference in Bucharest, Milica Stefanović, Communications and Development Director at NALED, discussed how credibility is built, how public campaigns can help raise awareness among citizens and businesses, and what is needed for reforms to succeed.

Milica presented NALED’s experience in leading public campaigns, advocating for reforms and bringing together the public, private and civil sectors. As positive examples from Serbia, she highlighted the Take a Receipt and Win prize game and the A Better Way Initiative, both of which have contributed to the development of cashless payments and the strengthening of tax culture.

What makes a public-interest campaign credible in the eyes of people who trust neither government nor corporate messages?

- You know how in mathematics a negative multiplied by a negative equals a positive? Sometimes life works that way too. Jokes aside, when a campaign is backed by only one sector or one voice, people may perceive it as serving only its own interests. Government, businesses, civil society and international partners can build a more credible and sustainable narrative when they work together. But it is not enough simply to place partners’ logos side by side. Trust comes from dialogue, respect for different perspectives, identifying common interests, communicating on the basis of facts, and acting transparently to deliver tangible results.

In Serbia, we have spent more than a decade supporting efforts to combat the shadow economy and improve tax culture. The best-known example is the “Take a Receipt and Win” prize game, which encourages citizens to request fiscal receipts and pay cashlessly.

Looking only at the last three digital rounds of the prize game, more than one million adult citizens registered through the app and scanned over 700 million receipts, around 20% of which were paid cashlessly. We estimate that the total number of participants is even higher, given that many families take part together. The key message is simple and memorable: Everyone wins when the shadow economy loses. The campaign has helped raise awareness about the importance of paying taxes and how each of us can contribute to reducing the shadow economy, including through the use of cashless payments.

Research shows that a 1% increase in the value of cashless transactions as a share of GDP is associated with a 0.041% reduction in the shadow economy as a share of GDP. It is estimated that the growth of cashless transactions in Serbia in recent years contributed to a reduction of the shadow economy by 1.55% of GDP, leading to an increase in public revenues of 0.56% of GDP, or approximately EUR 464 million annually.

However, when we talk about cashless payments, consumers and their habits of requesting receipts or paying by card or instant payment represent only one side of the equation. Small merchants also need a simple and practical way to introduce cashless payments, to test how they work in practice without initial investments and fixed costs. That is why NALED, in cooperation with GIZ, Visa and Mastercard, launched the “A Better Way” Initiative. With the support of almost the entire financial industry, we provided subsidies for the free introduction of POS solutions in 20,000 small retail outlets and online stores across Serbia. As many as 94% of merchants who have used these subsidies report being satisfied with the programme, citing higher customer satisfaction, while most continued using POS services with the same bank or acquirer even after the subsidy period ended.

“Take a Receipt and Win” and “A Better Way” are examples of campaigns that successfully engaged the entire community in addressing the shared challenge of the shadow economy, which, according to 2023 data, declined over a ten-year period from 29.1% of GDP to 21.1% of GDP. Recent research also shows that Serbia reduced the gap in cashless payment acceptance compared to Central and Eastern European countries from 4.3 percentage points of GDP to just 0.6 percentage points in recent years. Of course, most of this growth is the result of organic market development and the reforms that have been implemented. Through the A Better Way Initiative, however, we helped the most vulnerable groups in society join this trend so that no one would be left behind.

To me, that is what a credible campaign looks like: delivering on promises and remaining consistent with the values you advocate, communicating a clear message, working with partners from different sectors, being transparent, tracking and sharing results, and continuously improving based on those results.

Let’s assume the messages in a campaign are technically accurate, but one inconvenient part of the story is left out. Is that acceptable communication, or does it undermine trust? Who should be the first to question it?

- It is always important to tell the whole story. Take cashless transactions as an example. They are a highly secure, efficient and sophisticated service that offers many benefits to merchants, but they also involve certain costs. Card payments require a POS terminal connected to the internet, which may entail an additional monthly expense. There is also the merchant service fee charged on each transaction. For example, if the fee is 1.5%, a merchant pays 15 dinars for every 1,000 dinars processed through a POS terminal.

What we often forget, however, is that cash also has a cost: handling cash, transporting it, providing security, depositing daily takings, and bearing the risk of loss or theft. According to a study published by the Swedish central bank in 2024, the cost of a cash transaction in Sweden is approximately three times higher than the cost of a card payment, while cash transactions generate nearly 15 times more CO₂ emissions than cashless transactions.

Civil society organisations have the privilege of working on issues they genuinely believe in and of contributing positively to their communities. In that sense, our job is somewhat easier, at least when it comes to communications.

Does taking a position on a divisive issue build loyalty among some consumers at the cost of losing trust among others? How do you decide when to speak out?

- Taking a position may disappoint one group of people, while remaining silent may disappoint another, especially in a polarised society. In such situations, NALED starts from its mission, the mandate given to us by our members, and the priorities defined through our strategic plan and the Grey Book. We also ask ourselves whether we have sufficient evidence and expertise to contribute meaningfully to solving the issue at hand.

We are a non-partisan association, which means we do not take sides on party-political issues, nor do we comment on a topic simply because it is attracting public attention. Part of our role is to work with institutions to improve the business environment. Our members may also have conflicting interests. We therefore strive to find common ground and opportunities for cooperation, guided by the broader public interest as our fundamental principle.

This approach may cost us some support in the short term. In the long run, however, consistency builds trust because people know what we stand for and what they can expect from us. Consistency is key.

What is one practice your sector should stop using tomorrow if it wants consumers to trust it five years from now?

- Since NALED works with all three sectors, I would suggest one change for each. Civil society organisations, of which we are also a part, should stop making claims without research and evidence, and stop criticising without offering solutions. Public institutions should stop organising public consultations on new regulations after key decisions have already been made, and instead involve stakeholders from the very beginning. Businesses, meanwhile, should stop focusing exclusively on their own interests and KPIs without taking into account the interests of the wider community.