Branch establishment of Credit Institutions in EU
In articles 18 and 20 of Law 3601/2007 (regarding the Credit Institutions) it is provided that, under specific terms and conditions, a Financial Institution, domiciled in another member-state of the European Union, may perform activities of crediting in Greece.
In principle, the definition of a “Financial Institution” is provided in article 2 of Law 3601/2007, according to which it is “an enterprise which is NOT a Credit Institution (Bank), with main activity the acquisition of holdings or the performance of one or more of the activities designated under b’–ib’ and ie’ of paragraph 1 of article 1 of Law 3601/2007, i.e most of the activities that can be performed by the Credit Institutions (Banks) in Greece.
One of those activities mentioned above is “granting of credits or loans, including the factoring of business claims”.
In a few words, as shown by the combined provisions of articles 2 par. 11 and 11 par. 1 b’ of Law 3601/2007, the Credit Companies are a sub-category of the Financial Institutions.
Furthermore, the Law allows Financial Institutions domiciled in another EU member-state to pursue activities of the aforementioned list (b’–ib’ and ie’, including granting loans and credits) in Greece by establishing a branch.
The special terms and conditions that should be met for the exercise of this crediting activity depend on the type of the financial institution based in the other EU member-state. Therefore, specific information on the legal form and type of the foreign financial institution is necessary for the provision of specification and analysis of the terms for performing such activities and of the function of such a crediting model in Greece.