A bank refused to open an account: where to complain

A bank in Serbia refused to open an account, often verbally and without explanation. You can challenge that: first with the bank itself, then with the National Bank of Serbia (NBS). It is free, but slow. Below are the steps and deadlines from the official legal texts. Anything that is not a quote from the law is our advice.

In short

1. At the branch, submit your request in writing and ask for a written answer.
2. Refused or no answer — complain to the bank (prigovor). Answer within 15 days.
3. Answer unsatisfactory or missing — complain to the National Bank (pritužba) via the online form. Answer within 3 months.

What you are entitled to

Basic account. If you reside in Serbia lawfully and have no other payment account, the bank must, at your request, open a payment account with basic services in dinars: cash deposits and withdrawals, transfers, a card, including for online payments.

«…банка је дужна да потрошачу који има законит боравак у Републици Србији а нема отворен платни рачун – на његов захтев омогући отварање и коришћење платног рачуна са основним услугама» — Law on Payment Services, art. 73n.

(“…the bank must, at the request of a consumer who resides lawfully in the Republic of Serbia and has no open payment account, enable the opening and use of a payment account with basic services.”)

The same article opens with a reservation: anti-money-laundering rules still apply. The bank still checks the client and the source of funds.

Deadline for an answer: 10 working days. The bank must open the account or refuse “without delay, and at the latest within ten working days” of receiving a complete (uredan) request (art. 73nj para. 1). It may refuse if you already have such an account at another bank (art. 73nj para. 2).

Refusal in writing, free of charge. When it refuses, the bank must inform you of the refusal and the reasons «у писменој форми и без накнаде» (in writing and free of charge), «осим ако је то обавештавање забрањено прописом» (unless such notice is prohibited by law) (art. 73nj para. 5). In every case it must tell you about your right to complain to the bank and to the National Bank and about the possibility of out-of-court settlement of the dispute (art. 73nj para. 6). Out of court, the dispute can go to mediation at the National Bank if the bank’s answer to your complaint does not satisfy you or does not arrive on time (ZZKFU, art. 61). For breaching these deadlines and rules the law sets a fine for the bank of 50,000 to 800,000 dinars (art. 215 para. 1 items 76–78).

Discrimination is prohibited. When opening an account for a person residing lawfully in Serbia, «свака дискриминација … по било ком основу» (any discrimination on any ground) is prohibited, including on national origin and place of residence (art. 73b). The Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination expressly lists državljanstvo — citizenship — among the grounds (art. 2) and calls refusing a service on such a ground discrimination (art. 17).

Who the basic account does not cover. It is a right of a “consumer”: a natural person opening an account not for business (art. 2 item 9 of the Law on Payment Services).

For sole traders

A sole trader has no right to a basic account: it is an account for personal needs. But a sole trader can complain to the bank and to the National Bank just like an individual: the Law on the Protection of Financial Service Consumers expressly includes entrepreneurs among the “users” (korisnici) of financial services (art. 2 item 13).

What is unclear. The Law on Payment Services does not say whether a registered address alone (the white card), without a residence permit, counts as “lawful residence”; we have found no official guidance on this. As for ALTA accounts, the bank in bankruptcy states: «сви рачуни клијената су затворени», all client accounts are closed (altabanka.rs, web archive copy of 04.11.2026).

Step 1. In writing, at the branch

Our advice: submit the request in writing; a verbal refusal is hard to prove.

• Submit your request to open an account in writing. If you need a personal account and have no other account in Serbia, write that you are requesting a platni račun sa osnovnim uslugama under art. 73n of the Law on Payment Services.
• Make two copies. Ask for a dated receipt stamp on yours.
• If refused, ask for the refusal in writing, with reasons.
• If they will not accept the papers — our advice: send the request by registered mail with proof of delivery (preporučeno sa povratnicom) to the bank’s head office and keep the receipt.
• Keep everything: the request, the stamp or receipt, letters and e-mail replies.

Step 2. Complaint to the bank (prigovor)

Refused or no answer — file a written prigovor with the bank.

• How: the bank must accept complaints at its branches, on its website and through its electronic channels (ZZKFU, art. 59 para. 10).
• Filing deadline: 6 months from the day you learned of the breach (art. 59 para. 2).
• Answer: in writing, «најкасније у року од 15 дана од дана пријема приговора» (at the latest within 15 days of receiving the complaint) (art. 59 para. 5). If, for reasons beyond its control, the bank cannot meet this, it may extend the deadline by up to 15 more days, but must tell you in writing within the first 15 days, with the reason and the new deadline (art. 59 paras. 7–8).
• Free: the bank may not charge for handling the complaint (art. 59 para. 9).
• In its answer the bank must tell you that you may complain to the National Bank, and how (art. 59 para. 6).

Template below.

Step 3. Complaint to the National Bank (pritužba)

If the bank’s answer does not satisfy you or does not arrive in time, file a pritužba with the National Bank of Serbia.

• Where: the online form on the NBS website — nbs.rs → Pritužba. Attach the stamped request or postal receipt, your prigovor and the bank’s answer if there was one. The procedure is described on the NBS page. Questions: the free NBS Info Centre, 0800 111 110.
• Only after a prigovor. A complaint filed before the complaint to the bank, or before the bank’s deadline has run out, will not be considered (ZZKFU, art. 60 para. 3 item 1).
• Filing deadline: 6 months from the bank’s answer or from the day its deadline expired (art. 60 para. 2).
• What the NBS does: asks the bank for a statement and evidence, with a deadline of no more than 15 days (art. 60 para. 6). It decides on the documents, without hearing witnesses (art. 60 para. 4). That is why the papers from steps 1–2 matter.
• Answer: «у року од три месеца од дана пријема притужбе» (within three months of receiving the complaint), in complex cases up to 6 more months, with written notice before the first three expire (art. 60 para. 10).
• Free: according to the NBS page, the National Bank handles complaints free of charge.

If you were refused because of citizenship

In parallel you can complain to the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality (Poverenik za zaštitu ravnopravnosti): form and procedure on its website. The complaint is filed in writing, with no fee, with evidence (Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination, art. 35). The Commissioner gives an opinion within 90 days (art. 39). A written refusal or answer from the bank can serve as evidence, so step 1 matters here too.

Template: complaint to the bank (prigovor)

Our template, in Serbian, Latin script. Fill in your details and delete the options in brackets that do not apply. Do not post passport or account numbers in chats.

[Naziv banke] – služba za prigovore
[adresa sedišta banke ili e-mail za prigovore]

Podnosilac: [ime i prezime], [adresa u Srbiji], [telefon, e-mail]
Datum: [__.__.____.]

Predmet: Prigovor zbog odbijanja otvaranja platnog računa

Dana [__.__.____.] u ekspozituri [adresa ekspoziture] podneo/la sam
zahtev za otvaranje platnog računa [sa osnovnim uslugama, član 73n
Zakona o platnim uslugama]. Imam zakonit boravak u Republici Srbiji
[osnov boravka i broj dozvole]. [Nemam drugi platni račun u Srbiji.]

[Zahtev je odbijen usmeno, bez pisanog obaveštenja i bez razloga. /
Banka nije odlučila u roku od deset radnih dana. / Zahtev je odbijen
dana __, bez navođenja razloga.]

Smatram da banka nije postupila u skladu sa članovima 73b, 73n i 73nj
Zakona o platnim uslugama. Na osnovu člana 59. Zakona o zaštiti
korisnika finansijskih usluga podnosim prigovor i tražim:
1. da mi se omogući otvaranje platnog računa, ili
2. pisano obaveštenje o odbijanju i razlozima odbijanja.

Prilozi: 1. kopija zahteva sa datumom prijema / potvrda o slanju
         2. [odgovor banke, ako postoji]

[potpis]

An example from a chat: how one depositor went through this

One depositor posted a guide with letter templates on Telegra.ph: original and an archived copy in case the link stops working.

In his words: a Raiffeisen branch refused him verbally, he asked the bank in writing for the reason, received an answer citing “risk management procedures”, and complained to the National Bank. About 3 months later the bank called him itself and invited him to open an account, and a couple of days later the NBS answer arrived.

This is one person’s account: we have not seen the bank’s or the National Bank’s answers and cannot promise the same result. The templates in his guide cite EU directives that do not apply directly in Serbia. It is safer to rely on Serbian law, as in our template above.

Where to compare bank tariffs

If you are choosing where to open an account, you can look at a third-party page, “Bank Radar” (comparison by scenario, pick by situation, home page). It compares tariffs and packages of banks in Serbia for different scenarios: personal account, sole proprietor, company.

This is an unofficial resource by an independent author; we do not run or verify it. The author takes fees from the banks’ official tariffs, and the packages link to the primary sources with a check date. Customer experience (from chats and forums) is shown separately and marked as user-generated; the summaries are AI-assisted, and the author warns that AI can make mistakes. The author does not guarantee completeness for every bank. Check the terms on the bank’s own website before deciding.

Record your result

Refused or opened — mark it in the anonymous form: the answer statistics show where accounts get opened and which documents banks ask for.