A non-resident EU citizen (Bulgarian) opened a personal account at Sberbank Serbia with only a passport during a visit to Novi Sad. The process was straightforward but only a ruble account was opened initially, which lacked e-banking. They planned to open a euro account with e-banking on a subsequent visit. The account was valued for being outside CRS reporting scope.

A user with knowledge of Serbian banking reported that OTP Bank (owned by Hungarian OTP) is the most liberal bank in Serbia for non-resident account opening, requiring only a passport. EUR accounts are available with debit cards. The bank opens on Saturdays. However, incoming payments from company accounts may trigger requests for contract and certificate of origin documentation. Payments from private persons and EMIs with individual IBANs are generally fine. Gambling-related winnings are problematic.

A user reported that Banca Intesa Serbia (owned by Intesa Sanpaolo) accepts non-residents with only a passport. EUR accounts are free and come with free debit cards. As the largest retail bank in Serbia with 147 branches, it has extensive coverage. The bank was named Bank of the Year in Serbia and offers packaged accounts with Amex and health insurance.

A user reported that Sberbank Serbia requires both a passport and a short-term Serbian residence certificate (from the police or hotel where staying) to open a non-resident account. Unlike OTP, Intesa, and Raiffeisen which accept passport only, Sberbank has the additional requirement. EUR accounts are available but without a debit card, limiting their practical use.

A long-term customer of ~20 years reported significant deterioration in Raiffeisen Bank Serbia after the RBA Bank merger in May 2023. Cards were sent to the wrong address despite the correct address being on file. DINA card payments in local stores in RSD were incorrectly charged from the EUR account instead of the RSD account. Staff were polite and tried to help, but the system could not resolve delivery issues. The author could no longer recommend the bank as of July 2023. Prior to the merger, the bank had excellent UI/UX, polite staff, and short queues. Account maintenance fees were ~3 EUR/month for RSD and ~8 EUR/month for foreign currency accounts. No 2FA for login but token-based 2FA for payments. Online payment commission was 1%.

A non-resident EU citizen searching for a personal checking account successfully opened one after a short visit to Belgrade. After initial rejections and misinformation from other banks (Raiffeisen requested a work contract, OTP required company registration, Erste claimed non-residents not accepted), they found a bank whose support agent knew the process. Only passport and the police registration paper (white card) were required. The agent provided the document name in the local language to facilitate the process.

A binational French-Serbian citizen who owns an apartment in Belgrade attempted to open a non-resident account at Raiffeisen Bank to pay utilities. The process was blocked by a catch-22: Serbian law requires a police registration (prijava boravka) to open a non-resident account, but the police cannot issue this if entering with a Serbian passport. Entering with a French passport instead is technically illegal. Even if successful, non-resident accounts at Raiffeisen cannot make online wire transfers abroad — the account holder must visit the branch in person with each invoice. Raiffeisen also had a poor exchange rate spread (114/120 RSD per EUR) and high international transfer fees.