Opening of foreign banks representative offices in the Republic of Serbia

A foreign bank may set up a representative office in the territory of the Republic of Serbia for the purposes of market research and representation.

The provisions of the Law on Banks and the Decision on Detailed Requirements and the Procedure for the Granting and Revoking of Aprovals for the Opening of the Representative Office of a foreign Bank in the Republic of Serbia ("Official Gazette of the RS", no 114/2012) apply to the opening of a foreign bank representative office in the Republic of Serbia.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Law, a foreign bank representative office is to be registered in conformity with the law governing the registration of business entities, subject to the consent granted by the National Bank of Serbia.

Request for consent, to be submitted by the foreign bank to the National Bank of Serbia, should include:

• name, head office and address of the foreign bank;
• name, head office and address of the representative office that is being opened, and 
• data on the person responsible for the operations of the representative office that is being opened and data on the number of persons to be employed in such representative office.

Along with the request, the foreign bank should also submit: 

• Confirmation letter issued by the regulatory body of the home country that the foreign bank holds an operating license and is authorised to establish a representative office in the Republic of Serbia, or evidence that such authorisation is not required under regulations of the home country;
• Information on the name, legal status and head office of the foreign bank; 
• Copy of the founding act of such foreign bank; 
• Data on the financial condition of the foreign bank (financial statement with certified auditors’ opinion for the preceding business year); 
• Decision of the competent authority of the foreign bank to open a representative office; 
• Decision on the appointment of a person responsible for operations of the representative office and authorisation for that person; 
• Data on the business name and head office of the representative office; 
• Proposed activities and operational programme of the representative office of a foreign bank; 
• Information on the management of a foreign bank’s representative office including the biography of the person responsible for the operations of the representative office; 
• Certified statement by such foreign bank that it is willing to assume obligations arising from business activities of the representative office.

The above conditions are prescribed in the Decision on Detailed Requirements and the Procedure for the Granting and Revoking of Approvals for the Opening of the Representative Office of a Foreign Bank in the Republic of Serbia ("RS Official Gazette", no 114/2012), to be applied as of 5 December 2012.

A foreign bank will submit an application for entry of its representative office in the register of business entities within 30 days from the day of obtaining the consent of the National Bank of Serbia. The representative office of a foreign bank will submit the decision on entry in the register to the National Bank of Serbia within 5 days from the day of receiving such decision, while it will submit the permit for permanent or temporary residence in the Republic of Serbia for the foreign natural person responsible for the operation of the representative office 5 days upon obtaining such permit from the competent authority.

A foreign bank representative office will be required to submit a report on its operations to the National Bank of Serbia, by 31 March of the current year for the preceding year, and to notify the National Bank of Serbia of all changes significant for the operations of such representative office without delay.