The National Bank of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia became a member of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in 1931. The participation of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the BIS’s share capital amounted to 8,000 shares, 4,000 of which were subscribed for on June 30th 1931, whereas the subscription of the remaining part took place on June 9th 1969. The total value of the shares amounts to 20 million gold francs, representing 1.33% of the total BIS capital. More specifically, in question are five million in effective money and 15 million in “on-call capital”, which brings in an annual dividend worth approximately 200 gold francs per share).

On December 18th 2000, the National Bank of Yugoslavia and the BIS reached an agreement for a loan worth USD 100 mil. secured against gold and foreign exchange reserves of the former SFRY with the BIS.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia officially re-joined the Bank for International Settlements on June 10th 2001.

An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the Bank for International Settlements that decided on the renewal of membership rights of the FR Yugoslavia with this bank also took a decision on the division of shares, gold and foreign exchange of the former SFRY deposited with the BIS. The BIS has issued an equivalent number of new shares that were divided among the five successor states to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. These are the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Croatian National Bank, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, the Bank of Slovenia and the National Bank of Yugoslavia.

The division brought the FR Yugoslavia 2,920 shares each worth 16,000 gold francs, as well as gold and foreign exchange worth approximately USD160 mil. which will be credited to the foreign exchange reserves of the country.