no. 07-00-367 / 2021-02 date: 27.9.2021.

OPINION

The opinion was issued in the procedure regarding the complaint filed by AA and BB, against Bank VV, due to discrimination against persons who are of Iranian origin and have been granted asylum in the Republic of Serbia. The complaint states that Bank VV refused to open a bank account for some persons who are originally from Iran and have been granted asylum in the Republic of Serbia, which was the reason for conducting situational testing of discrimination in this Bank, and that the complainants, before the testing activities were performed, requested the opinion of the National Bank of Serbia. Situational testing was performed in two subsequent days, in the same branch of the Bank. The tester, who is a person with approved asylum and an ID card issued by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia, tried to open an account at Bank VV, and after arriving to the counter, he asked an employee in Serbian to open a bank account. When he provided his ID card, the bank employee told him: “We cannot open an account in this bank with your ID card because we have a systemic problem in relation to the ID number, that is EBS (registration number for foreigners). People came before with the same request to open an account, but that was not possible. I am sorry, goodbye.” The next day, the control tester, who has the citizenship of the Republic of Serbia, came to the same branch of the Bank with a request to open a bank account, which she succeeded in doing. In the statement of Bank VV it was asserted, inter alia, that there is no document that would completely prohibit the Bank’s business cooperation with clients originating in Iran, and that the Bank has the right to freely decide on the choice of a client, and that in certain cases it is unable to provide banking services to a potential client. During the procedure, it was determined that the legal regulations in this area stipulate that a business relationship is not established only if the bank the risk in establishing a business relationship as high, and could not apply intensified actions and measures, in accordance with law and internal act of the bank. In order to give an opinion in this case, it is important to apply the rule on distribution of the burden of proof from Article 45, paragraph 2 of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, according to which the burden of proving that the principle of equal rights and obligations has not been violated rests with the person against whom the complaint was filled. However, during this procedure, Bank VV did not provide evidence based on which it could be established that it refused to conclude a business relationship with a person of Iranian origin and approved asylum in the Republic of Serbia for justified reasons, that is, evidence that it could not apply intensified actions and measures to know and monitor the client, if there was a high risk in establishing a business relationship with these persons. In the letter of the National Bank of Serbia submitted in the attachment to the complaint, as well as in the letter no. KG757/2/21 of 6.4.2021 the National Bank submitted to the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality in another case regarding a similar legal situation, it was stated, inter alia, that it is not possible to exclude in advance the possibility of opening accounts for certain categories of persons solely on the basis of citizenship, that is, state of origin or nationality, and that the refusal to establish a business relationship or terminate that relationship is possible only if the bank has determined, after conducting justified analyses, that it is unable to apply specific intensified actions and measures. After the conducted procedure, the Commissioner gave the opinion that by refusing to establish a business relationship and open an account for a person who has been granted asylum in the Republic of Serbia and is originally from Iran, bank VV violated Article 6 of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination.  With the opinion, a recommendation was given that Bank VV, when considering the requests of persons who have been granted asylum in the Republic of Serbia and who are originally from Iran, in each case assesses the fulfillment of legal requirements for establishing a business relationship, without negative generalizations about persons based on any of their personal characteristics, as well as to take care in the future not to violate the regulations on the prohibition of discrimination in the framework of its work and activities.

COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROTECTION OF EQUALITY

Brankica Janković