According to the provisions of Law on Foreign Currency Transactions (“Official Herald of the Republic of Serbia”, Nos. 62/2006, 31/2011, 119/2012, 139/2014, 30/2018 and 19/2025) capital transactions shall be transactions between residents and non-residents and the purpose of which is the transfer of capital.
Capital transactions shall be the following:
- Direct investments
- Investments in real estate
- Transactions with securities
- Transactions with financial derivatives
- Transactions with investment and voluntary pension funds
- Credit facility operations
- Guarantee transactions
- Deposit operations
- Operations based on insurance contract in line with the law governing insurance
- Unilateral transfers of means of payment (personal and physical).
Direct Investments
Direct investments shall be resident’s investments into legal person abroad and non-resident’s investments into legal person in the Republic Serbia for the purpose of getting included in the management of such legal person’s activities.
For the purposes of this definition investments shall be understood as:
- incorporation of legal person, branch or representative office, purchase of shares or stake in the capital of legal person, additional capital formation of the legal person as well as any other form of investment whereby the investor acquires more than a 10% stake in share capital, and/or more than 10% of voting rights, in a period not longer than one year after the first investment into that legal person in the event of successive investments (for the purpose of reaching the threshold of 10%)
- credit facilities and loans with a maturity of five years or longer if they have the characteristics of a subordinated claim (subordinated credit facilities and loans).
Payment and transfer of capital with regard to direct investments of residents – legal entities, entrepreneurs and natural persons to abroad shall be executed freely, in line with the law governing foreign trade.
Payment and transfer of capital with regard to direct investments of non-residents in the Republic Serbia shall be executed freely in line with the law governing foreign investments.
Residents – legal entities, entrepreneurs and natural persons may pay and collect in order to buy or sell equity of a foreign legal person abroad, which is not considered to be direct investment.
Non-residents may pay or collect in order to purchase or sell equity of a resident legal person which is not considered to be a direct investment, in accordance with the law governing companies.
Investments in Real Estate
Payments for the purpose of acquiring ownership of real estate of residents abroad and non-residents in the Republic Serbia shall be executed freely, in line with the law governing legal ownership relations.
Transactions with Securities
Transactions with securities shall be transactions with long-term and short-term securities and equity securities.
Transactions with Financial Derivates
Payment, collection, transfer, set-off, as well as reporting on transactions with financial derivatives are carried out under conditions and in the manner prescribed by the National Bank of Serbia.
Operations with Investment and Voluntary Pension Funds
Residents – investment and voluntary pension fund management companies may effect payment and collection on the basis of investing abroad, in line with the provisions of the law governing activities with investment and voluntary pension funds.
Residents – legal entities, entrepreneurs and natural persons may make payments and collection on the basis of investing into foreign investment funds using the residents – investment companies and investment funds management companies as intermediaries, in terms of the law governing the capital market.
Non-residents may effect payment and collection on the basis of investing into investment funds and voluntary pension funds in the Republic Serbia, in line with the provisions of laws governing activities with investment and voluntary pension funds.
Credit facility operations
Credit facility operations shall be credit facility operations in the Republic Serbia and international credit facility operations.
Credit facility operations in the Republic Serbia shall be credit facilities that the bank approves to a resident in foreign currency.
International credit facility operations are credit facilities approved by a bank or a foreign bank, and loans between residents and non-residents, which are reported to the National Bank of Serbia by residents. Credit facility operations are:
- Commercial credit facilities and loans in foreign currency and dinars linked to foreign trade of goods and services, which include delayed payment and pre-payment of goods and services up to one year with interest, or over one year without interest. Financing of delayed payment and pre-payment of goods and services approved by a creditor or lender to a debtor – buyer in the foreign trade of goods and services, by direct fulfillment of the obligation to the seller, at buyer’s order, is also considered to be commercial credit facility and loan
- Financial credit facilities and loans in foreign currency which are approved by a creditor to a borrower by making the funds available by paying them to the borrower’s account. Financial credit facilities and loans shall also be all forms of financing approved by banks, foreign banks and other financial institutions. Financing of trade of goods or services, approved by a bank, in which a resident is not a contracting party in the trade, is also considered to be a financial credit facility.
Commercial and financial credit facilities and loans may be approved to a debtor by a creditor or lender, or a group of creditors or lenders (a syndicated credit facility or loan). - Subordinated credit facilities and loans, approved in foreign currency;
- Short-term foreign currency bank time deposits with a maturity of up to one year between a bank and a foreign bank, when a bank – creditor pays funds to an account of a bank – borrower;
- Short-term bank line of credit in foreign currency with a maturity of up to one year between a bank and a foreign bank, when a bank – creditor makes payments at the demand of a bank – borrower
- Other activities that have the characteristics of the international credit facility operation
- Bank guarantees, endorsements and other forms of sureties given by a bank in favor of a non-resident creditor for credit facilities taken by residents from abroad, and for credit facility operations between two non-residents abroad
- Sureties and other forms of collateral that a resident – legal person and entrepreneur gives at the benefit of a non-resident – creditor for credit facilities taken by residents from abroad, as well as sureties and other forms of collateral that a resident – legal person gives under credit facility transactions between two non-residents abroad
- credit facilities and loans in dinars, which, in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Foreign Currency Transactions, the international financial institutions and development banks or financial institutions founded by foreign states approve to residents, as well as credit facilities in dinars approved by the banks to non-residents.
Guarantee operations
Guarantee operations are operations of issuing and acquiring guarantees, endorsements, sureties and other forms of collateral that a bank conducts in accordance with the regulations on banks, except for the bank guarantees, endorsements and other forms of sureties given by a bank in favor of a non-resident creditor for credit facilities taken by residents from abroad, and for credit facility operations between two non-residents abroad.
Following operations shall also be considered as guarantee operations:
- Sureties given by the resident legal person to non-resident under foreign trade of goods and services and execution of investment works in the Republic Serbia
- Guarantees and sureties obtained by a resident legal person from non-resident under foreign trade of goods and services and execution of investment works abroad, as well as under a transaction with another resident legal person in the Republic Serbia
- Guarantee operations carried out by a resident – legal person founded by the Republic Serbia under a special law to finance exports.
Deposit Operations
For the purposes of the Law on Foreign Currency Transactions, deposit operations shall be operations based on the deposit contract concluded between the non-resident and the bank, as well as between the resident and the bank abroad.
Operations based on Insurance Contract
Operations based on insurance contract shall encompass payments of premiums and insured sums on the basis of contract concluded between the insurance company – non-resident and resident as the insured, as well as between a resident insurance company and a non-resident as the insured, in line with the law governing insurance.
Unilateral Transfers of Means of Payment – Personal and Physical
Personal transfer of means of payment shall be the transfer of funds from the Republic Serbia to abroad or from abroad to the Republic Serbia which is not based on the execution of the activity – it shall be performed between a resident natural person and non-resident, and shall include gifts and aid, inheritance, annuities, settlement of debt of immigrants in the Republic Serbia and the transfer of immigrants’ funds to abroad.
Physical transfer of means of payment shall be any transfer of cash in dinars, as well as transfer of foreign cash and securities from the Republic Serbia and into the Republic Serbia.
Last update: 28. 9. 2025.
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