Services_ / Banking Law

While we worked on the structure of our web site one of the area of practice, whose services we also wanted to highlight, was in relation to work with banks and other financial institutions. Since Banking Law as a special area of law does not exist in Republic of Serbia but domestic and foreign clients have need for diversification of this business area and therefore corresponding rights and obligations, we decided to single out this area as a special range of services with a commitment to highlight the following:

Banking law as a separate, official area of law does not exist in the Republic of Serbia. The banking law includes various legal disciplines that apply to banks and banking business. In addition to banking status regulations (like eg. The Law on Banks, Law on the National Bank) and the regulations governing the operations of banks (like eg. The Foreign Exchange Act, the Payment System Act, the regulations on securities, various Decisions and Regulations of the National Bank etc.), the most often encountered areas of practice in daily banking operations are contract law, Real Estate Law (mortgage insurance) and statutory business law (corporate law).

How things can get messy when it comes to such a complex area, we can see in the following example from business life:

”Two foreign banks and one local bank provide a loan to a domestic legal entity which undertakes to issue bonds and to promote them in favor of the creditor banks as collateral for the obtained loan. All this is contracted in regard to project financing, which will be implemented through the company established only for this purpose. Upon the finishing of the project, this, new company will pledge to cede its own income as a further insurance to the above bank creditors.”

Such undertaking includes elements of law on contract and torts, status law, securities law, law in the field of planning and construction, regulations in the field of foreign currency operations. As it could be noticed from the example, it is usually a very complex undertaking that legal professionals must convert in the corresponding document. In addition to such complex activities, there are other kinds of jobs in a bank such as enforcements, mortgages, drafting loan agreements, payment processing, etc.).

Bearing in mind all that has been said, our law firm provides legal advice in connection with syndicated loans, financing of purchasing of companies, corporate and project finance. Our services also apply to representation in court disputes filed by individuals and/or legal entities against the bank and vice versa in case of breach of positive regulations of the Republic of Serbia.

Here are some forms of legal assistance:

The establishment and registration of banks, investment funds and other financial institutions
Banking transactions
Providing legal services in connection with statutary matters
Preparation of documents necessary for the proceedings before the competent authorities and institutions
Counsiling in regard to capital structure and business strategy
Loans and financing between companies
Advising clients in connection with the selection of appropriate collateral
Advising clients in relation to aspects of business relationships in the financial markets
Preparation and drafting internal documents in order to comply with applicable regulations
Counseling in the area of legislative regulations of stock exchange operations
Operations related to registration, issuance and implementation of promissory notes and checks, as well as any disputes which may arise in connection with these
Project financing
Factoring