The banking sector of Serbia deserves special attention of our readers, especially of those who used to be the clients of the notorious Latvian ABLV Bank. The Serbian banks are able to offer a competitive level of quality, as well as the simplest and fastest procedure for opening an account. We would like to offer you the service of remote opening of a corporate account with a large international bank having its branch in Serbia.
You can open a corporate account with this bank in Serbia. This service is available for the offshore companies as well. The Serbian branch of this international bank is also one of the very few European banks that agree to accept former clients of the Latvian ABLV Bank.
Under the conditions of this service, the account will be opened completely remotely on the basis of the Power of Attorney. However, we can ensure your opportunity to open a corporate account with the large international bank in Serbia upon your personal visit to the country. If you are interested in such an opportunity, please feel free to contact us by e-mail: info@offshore-pro.info.
Serbia has a deposit protection program for up to EUR 50,000.
Today the Serbian banks, unlike the Latvian ones, do not provide service in Russian. However, the English language service is available for the overseas clients.
It should be borne in mind that the requirements of Serbian banks to their potential clients are ever stepping up, just like it happens everywhere in the world. It becomes more difficult to open corporate accounts for non-resident companies. Despite this, it is possible to open an account in Serbia if the following conditions are met: careful preparation of a complete set of documents; preliminary examination of documents by the bank via the Pre-Approval Service.
It is also important to understand that non-residents will not be able to enjoy the whole range of services available with the bank, unlike the residents. That is why we highly recommend your getting a resident status in Serbia to ensure more convenient banking terms and conditions. This can be done through the incorporation of a company in Serbia or through the purchase of real estate .
Starting since summer 2019, Serbia has joined the CRS Standard and now exchanges banking information.
Large International Bank in Serbia
The bank we are talking about is a Serbian subsidiary of an Italian banking group that owns 100% of the bank. The bank subsidiary was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Belgrade. Today this bank is one of the largest banks in Serbia.
This bank in Serbia is implementing a pan-European commercial bank business model focused on providing appropriate solutions to meet the real demands and priorities of the clients.
The bank has got many prestigious awards. In 2016, the renowned British financial magazine, The Banker, awarded the bank the prestigious title of the Bank of the Year in Serbia at a ceremony held in London for the seventeenth consecutive year. The bank has also been repeatedly recognized for its success in the corporate social responsibility.
Financing for Corporate Clients in Serbia
The bank offers its clients short-term and medium-term lending solutions adjusted to meet the clients’ business demands, both in national and foreign currencies.
Types of financing:
- working capital financing;
- investment loan;
- syndicated loan;
- a loan by the European Investment Bank to support small and medium-sized businesses;
- financing energy efficiency investments;
- loans to micro, small and medium-sized businesses supported by the Italian government.
Trade Financing
As for the field of trade financing, the bank offers its clients the following products and services:
- letter of guarantee;
- letter of credit;
- documentary collection;
- checks.
EU Funds
The bank, based on the Agreement signed with the European Investment Fund (EIF), has joined the COSME program (the program for increasing competitiveness of enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses). Under this program, small and medium-sized businesses can obtain financing for the long-term working capital or investment in fixed assets on particularly favorable terms.
Factoring
The bank also offers factoring services to its corporate clients. This can be useful to any company selling goods or services on a deferred payment basis.
Cash Management at the Large Bank in Serbia
The bank provides various cash management services with the possibility to develop specialized solutions for a specific business model.
Current Account
The bank in Serbia opens accounts to legal entities both in Serbian dinars and in foreign currencies. The bank has the possibility of opening accounts for both local legal entities and non-resident companies. Current accounts of legal entities are used for money transactions and transfers.
Pa.Re.To.
Pa.Re.To. is a service that covers the collection of customer payments, as a result of which the bank assumes the collection and accounting of your incoming cash flow. This will allow you to eliminate possible errors that might occur during the verification process, reduce the amount of effort required for introducing the payments into your system, and reduce the demand for investment in the infrastructure (additional computer resources).
This service is may be of interest for such clients as insurance companies, telecommunications companies, wholesalers, etc.
Escrow Account
An escrow account is a specialized account, the important elements of which are as follows:
- the way in which a payment between two or more parties is effected via the bank that the contracting parties trust;
- the account validity period (the account is opened in the name of one of the contracting parties).
Payments at the Large Bank in Serbia
The bank provides its clients with the opportunity to carry out both local and international payments. Payroll services, long-term payment orders and direct debit services are also available to the local clients.
Payments in EUR within the bank group are effected on the same day. A wide network of correspondent banks allows making international payments outside the bank group within one day as well. Regular international payments are effected the next day.
Digital Apps for Account Control with the Large Bank in Serbia
The bank strives to maintain and strengthen its leading positions in providing corporate Internet banking in the Central and Eastern Europe.
BusinessNet Professional
The bank uses a modern Internet banking application that is successfully applied in 14 countries of the Central and Eastern Europe. BusinessNet Professional can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. An electronic key is used for entering the system and signing payment orders.
It should be noted, among other advantages, that different legal entities having their accounts with the bank both in Serbia and outside, can access their accounts using the same username.
Halcom E-Bank
The most common e-banking solution in Serbia will allow you to connect multiple user accounts in different banks in Serbia to a single smart card to access the application.
It is a PC (Windows) application that will be installed on your computer.
MultiCash
This application is made for those users whose parent companies in the Western Europe use it as a basis for preparing and signing payment orders. Access to the application and signing of orders is provided using an electronic key stored on a USB device.
Plastic Cards for Corporate Clients of the Large Bank in Serbia
The following types of plastic cards are available for the bank’s corporate clients of in Serbia:
- MasterCard Business credit cards;
- Visa Electron Business debit cards;
- Visa Gold Business debit cards.
Deposits with the Large Bank in Serbia
The following types of deposits are available to corporate clients of the bank in Serbia:
- demand deposit (permanent access to your funds, the possibility of opening an account in any currency, and no minimum amount required);
- fixed-term deposit (the deposit for a period of up to two years or more, by agreement, in any currency).
The bank in Serbia is also leading in the field of custody services. The bank makes it easier and safer for local and foreign investors to deal with bonds issued in both domestic and foreign markets.
Investment Banking with the Largest Bank in Serbia
In accordance with the decision of the Securities Commission, the bank in Serbia has the right to trade securities.
The bank offers its clients brokerage services, namely trading in the primary and secondary markets. The main focus of the business is made on trading the shares of the companies listed on the Belgrade Stock Exchange, as well as bonds of the Republic of Serbia.
The bank also has various offers for currency trading:
- foreign exchange conversion operations;
- forward operations;
- currency swap;
- repo transactions;
- and other operations.
it offers its corporate clients the opportunity of buying and selling foreign currency under the best market conditions.
Corporate Financial Advice
The bank’s Corporate Finance Advisory (CFA) is one of the leading consulting firms in Central and Eastern Europe, using a unique combination of the bank’s extensive platform in Europe and its knowledge of the local market.
The Serbian Corporate Finance Advisory subdivision is an integral part of the bank’s CFA CEE with a network of 11 offices in Central and Eastern Europe. Together with the industry experts in Vienna and product experts in London and Munich, the bank in Serbia provides a full range of investment banking products and services, including advisory services on mergers and acquisitions.
Serbia is Not a Bank Account Only
We recommend that you pay attention to obtaining a resident status in Serbia that is granted for investment. Thanks to this solution, you can ensure more favorable conditions for working with the local banks. Residents are always trusted more than non-residents. What does it give you? You can get a resident status in the country that is going to join the EU together with the prospect of getting a second passport. This status can be combined with others, for example, with the residency of Panama.
Residency permit in Serbia is often chosen for minimizing any possible political and social risks, as well as for making the taxation more efficient.
You can get a residency permit in Serbia by investing in a company or real estate. If you wish, you can become a tax resident of Serbia and use its double taxation agreements.
Procedure for Remote Opening of a Corporate Account with the Large Bank in Serbia
- To start the procedure for opening an account, you need to contact our specialists by e-mail info@offshore-pro.info with a request for professional assistance in opening a corporate account with UniCredit Bank in Serbia.
- The next step is to pay for our professional assistance in getting your account opened. This payment can be made by a bank transaction, payment card, via PayPal, WebMoney, Western Union. Having received your payment we will proceed with opening your corporate bank account in Serbia remotely upon your request.
If your company has a complex structure (corporate nominees), it will be more difficult to open the account since this means extra work with the documents of your nominees and providing of explanations to the bank. Please enquire about the exact cost of this service at: info@offshore-pro.info. The Power of Attorney for a lawyer representing your interests in opening the account is to be paid separately.
Additional expenses:
- drawing up the Power of Attorney;
- translation of the Power of Attorney into Serbian in Serbia (translation cost will be about 20 EUR per page).
- The third step is preparation of your documents.
Here is the list of documents required for opening a corporate bank account in Serbia:
- Extract from the Register with an apostille, no older than 3 months, translated by an authorized translator in Serbia (the original copy must be provided) and / or
- Certificate of Incumbency with an apostille, no older than 3 months, translated by an authorized translator in Serbia (the original copy must be provided);
- Certificate of Good Standing;
- Notarized Power of Attorney for opening a corporate account, with an apostille;
- Legal entity’s Articles of Association and other official company documents;
- Brief description of the company’s business operations.
Each beneficiary and other controlling persons such as company directors and managers indicated in the company’s documents must present the following:
- Copies of their passports and residency cards;
Other documents:
- A letter on the company’s letterhead confirming the ownership structure and signed by the company’s director or authorized person;
- Notarized signature sample, it can be made in Serbia or abroad;
- Filled out bank application forms for opening of the account signed by the person in whose name the Power of Attorney drawn. These blank forms are provided by the bank.
Opening of the account usually takes up to 3 months from the date all the necessary documents are submitted. However, there is a probability that the bank will reject the application and refuse to open an account for a foreign company. We recommend that you consider an alternative option, which is the registration of a branch of an offshore company in Serbia. This option is of special interest today, both in terms of the speed of registration and the predictability of the result.
Starting from July 1, 2018, under the new legal requirements, if a Serbian company or branch has a turnover of more than 100,000 euro, it is required to appoint a person who will sign the reports to the VAT tax office. This person must be a resident of Serbia. This can be a specifically appointed person, or it can be you if youobtain the resident status. In this case you will be able to sign the corresponding reports.
When working with the Serbian banks, it does not matter if we are talking about a private or a corporate account, one point must be taken into consideration: before you become a permanent and reliable partner to the bank, you must carry out several transactions. And these very transactions are always the most sensitive. The bank can and most likely will have questions about any of them.
In order to get answers to these questions, the bank’s representatives will try to contact you. We encourage you to stay in touch with the bank during the first weeks and months and, most importantly, to provide your answers within 24 hours. Otherwise, the bank will freeze your transaction, and after a couple of similar situations, it will just close your account out of harm’s way.
We would like to reiterate that. It is important to stay in touch with your bank and promptly respond to the bank’s questions, provide your answers to keep the account operational.
At the same time, we do understand that there may be external circumstances due to which you will not be able to react immediately, such as vacation, illness of your loved ones, force majeure in business. But for the bank, such reasons are no excuse.
Therefore, we would like to offer you this opportunity of appointing our Serbian office as a backup contact. So, if the bank has any questions and cannot get through to you, the bank will contact our experts and ask them to clarify the details of your transaction. In this case, we will help you to resolve a disputable situation with the bank and preserve your perfect reputation.
You can request this service at the very start or decline it. It is free for the first few, most critical, transactions. Should you decide to decline this service, we would like to repeat it once again. Please stay in touch with the bank so that there will be no reason to close your account.
Should you have any questions related to the service of remote opening of a corporate account in Serbia, please feel free to contact us by e-mail: info@offshore-pro.info.
