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CRS Basic information

Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information  
Common Reporting Standard - CRS

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS), developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is a new regulatory obligation for the financial institutions established in participating countries to gather and report information concerning financial accounts. The purpose of the Common Reporting Standard is to help combat tax evasion and avoidance, and to improve tax compliance at international level.

  • The participating jurisdictions which have agreed to implement the Common Reporting Standard include Greece, on the basis of Law 4428/2016 for the Ratification of the Multilateral Agreement of Competent Authorities for the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information.

  • At the same time, in Europe the implementation of the automatic exchange of information on the basis of the Common Reporting Standard was ensured with the adoption of Directive 2014/107/EU on the mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation, which was incorporated into Greek law via Law 4378/2016.

  • For Greece, the first exchange of financial account information shall take place in 2017 regarding FY 2016.

In application of the above, all Financial Institutions of participating jurisdictions, including Optima bank (henceforth, "the Bank"), are under the obligation to identify and transmit to the competent Greek tax authorities information regarding the financial accounts of beneficiaries whose tax residence may be located in another participating jurisdiction. Then the competent Greek tax authorities may forward such information to the respective competent tax authorities of the participating jurisdictions.        

In view of the above obligations of the Bank under the law, please visit one of the Bank’s branches or contact the officer who serves you, in order to collect the required documents and data and the respective self-certification.        

In order to confirm your status under the CRS, you will be requested to complete the appropriate self-certification form:

CRS Self-Certification for use by Individuals: For individuals and sole proprietors 

CRS Self-Certification for use by Entities: For legal entities  

CRS Self-Certification for use by Controlling Persons: This form is used by the Controlling Persons of certain Entities and is to be completed by the natural persons who exercise control over an Entity through ownership or otherwise.

For clarifications regarding the Tax Residence Self-Certification definitions/terms please click here.

The processing of personal data for the purpose of automatic financial account information exchange (CRS) is necessary for compliance with Bank’s legal obligations according to the provisions of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the national data protection legislation in force. For further information regarding the terms of personal data processing on behalf of the Bank, please refer to “Optima bank S.A. Customer Information on the Processing of Personal Data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)” by clicking here. 

As a Financial Institution we are not allowed to provide tax advice to customers. For further information about the requirements of the Common Reporting Standard, you can visit the websites of OECD, for the Automatic Exchange of Information (https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/about-automatic-exchange/) or the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) (https://www.aade.gr/epicheireseis/themata-diethnoys-dioiketikes-synergasias), or you can address your tax consultant.