Opening a Serbian Bank Account. Service offer

Basic bank fees:

• Account opening fee charged by the bank – EUR 2 500
• Incoming payment fee – no charge
• Outgoing payment fee – 0.3% (min. RSD 700, max. RSD 30 000)
• Currency conversion fee – 4-5%
• Account maintenance fee – no charge

At this stage, a set of documents is sent to the bank in electronic form, together with accompanying information about the company’s activities, economic results, and the proposed business structuring.

Corporate documents (standard list)*:

1. Certificate of Incorporation;
2. Memorandum and Articles of Association;
3. Proof of the company’s active status (Certificate of Good Standing);
4. Proof of the company’s structure (Certificate of Incumbency, extract from the public register, etc.).

The documents must not be older than 3 months (this requirement does not apply to constitutive documents, share certificates, or declarations of trust, which are issued once and are not re-issued with the current date).

If the structure includes other legal entities, a similar list of documents is requested for them.

*The list of documents is not exhaustive. The bank is not associated with us in any way and has the right to request any other documents and information. Depending on the jurisdiction of the company, the list of documents may differ from the one given above. Please contact a Consultant at GSL Law & Consulting for details.

Company’s business profile:

1. KYC questionnaire, including a detailed description of the company’s activities, desired account currencies, structure of activity, the company’s economic results and expected incoming/outgoing payments;
2. Agreements with potential counteragents and invoices under such agreements;
3. Bank statements for the last 3 – 6 months.

Documents for individuals in the structure:

1. Copy of passport;
2. Copy of proof of residential address (bank statement or utility bill not older than 2 months).

Based on the provided information and scanned copies of documents, we put together and submit an application to the bank for pre-approval.

The time for obtaining pre-approval is 1 – 3 weeks on average (depending on the complexity of the case), during which time the bank requests additional information/documents.

Based on the information received at the pre-approval stage, we make a list of documents to be apostilled for account opening. The bank does not accept bound sets of documents; it requires each document to be apostilled separately (!), and the apostille must not be older than 3 months at the time when the documents are submitted.

Bank forms must be signed at this stage as well. All forms are signed by the director of the company; in the case of remote account opening, 3 of the forms must be notarized and apostilled:

• Verified signature form;
• Statement for non-using of stamp – if a company does not use a seal;
• Power of Attorney.

A complete set of original documents must be sent to the bank and translated into Serbo-Croatian. The translation is done in Serbia by a translator licensed under Serbian law. The cost of translation is from EUR 375, payable to the bank directly along with the account opening fee (+5% VAT as the invoice is issued on behalf of the bank’s Dubai branch).

After all documents are delivered to the bank in Serbia, the application moves to the final stage. The account opening time (after the bank receives all documents) is about 7 working days.

[1] The fees are valid at June 2024.

[2] To order apostilled documents that are issued by government authorities, please contact a Consultant at GSL Law & Consulting.