Country Manual Private Banking – Bosnia and Herzegovina – BRP Update 2024
BRP has updated its Country Manual Private Banking for Bosnia and Herzegovina – (Def, RS, BT & RT)
| Source of changes | Answers |
|---|---|
| Law / Regulation | Yes |
| New Position of the Authorities | No |
| Evolution of Expert’s Interpretation | Yes |
Regulatory Template, Regulatory Summary and Behaviour Template
Material changes
According to local counsel, banking and investment activities via remote means of communication into BiH are considered to take place outside of BiH. Thus, according to an unofficial tolerated practice, such activities are tolerated both on an active and on a passive basis as long as they do not qualify as public advertising (i.e. such activities may only take place on a one-to-one basis) and as long as the service is provided outside BiH and without any physical presence of the Bank in BiH. Furthermore, providing a business card in BiH and generic marketing activities are likely to trigger a license requirement and should therefore be avoided on BiH territory, be it actively or upon request.
Our local counsel also advised that any advice related in any way to BiH securities/financial products is always subject to a licensing requirement, even if provided from abroad or in the Bank’s country of establishment. Furthermore, foreign exchange law states that any brokerage order related to local or foreign securities must go through an entity licensed as broker by the Security Commission in FBiH/RS/BD in case the client is a natural person. However, according to the local specialists, concerning BiH resident natural persons having an account abroad, there is currently no known interpretation or practice of BiH authorities as to the applicability and enforcement of this rule in practice.
The foreign exchange control section and other miscellaneous sections have been reviewed and updated.
Non-material changes
Some comments/conditions have been reworded and further non-material changes have been made throughout the documents.
Implications for business relations with third parties
With respect to the provision of documentation to the EAM (such as documentation on the Bank’s banking and investment services, investment research and financial analysis or recommendation lists), our Country Manual now distinguishes between the provision to the EAM for remittance to the end client on one hand and the provision to the EAM for the EAM’s own professional purposes on the other hand. The answers have been amended accordingly.
Regulatory Summary
This document has now a more user-friendly layout and reflects the changes contained in the RT.
BT Short Comparison
BRP has created a comparison document allowing users to quickly identify the modifications made compared to the previous version of the PB Manual (BT Short Comparison). The BT Short Comparison can be found on BRP’s platform (mybrponline) in the Search tab by entering in the Document Field “CM PB BT SHORT COMP” and “BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA” in the Target Country Field.
The BT Short Comparison should be read as follows:
The first column contains a short description of the activity in question. The second column contains the answers of the previous version of the Country Manual (online until the day of the alert). The third column contains the new answers of the most recent version of the Country Manual. Only the modified answers are displayed (in color). If the answers in the new version are unchanged compared to the previous version, they are shaded in grey.
For more information, please contact us: info@brpsa.com
Geneva, June 11th, 2024