According to Article 5 of the Serbian Banking Act (Zakon o bankama), no person other than a bank licensed in Serbia may engage in the granting of loans unless authorised by law. One Serbian law that does allow foreign banks (i.e., banks not established and licensed in Serbia) to provide cross-border loans to Serbian entities is the Serbian Foreign Exchange Act (Zakon o deviznom poslovanju). In particular, Article 18(7) of the Foreign Exchange Act expressly allows Serbian entities to borrow cross-border from foreign banks, which are not required to obtain a banking licence in Serbia for this purpose.
Corporate finance
Bearing in mind that raising capital on the capital markets through the issuance of bonds and notes has yet to take off in Serbia to any significant degree, most corporate finance in Serbia is currently provided by bank lenders—either domestic or foreign banks or their syndicates.
Secondary debt market
Nevertheless, some of these corporate loans may… Read more
