CRS – Common Reporting Standard

CRS (Common Reporting Standard) is a unified standard of reporting, due diligence and information exchange on financial accounts, developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which provides for financial institutions to determine their clients’ tax residency and transfer the relevant information to the tax authorities in order to combat tax evasion. The purpose of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is to promote tax transparency and combat tax evasion.

The CRS seeks to establish the tax residency of customers. Under the CRS, financial institutions are required to identify customers who appear to be tax resident outside of the country/jurisdiction where they hold their accounts and products, and report certain information to our local tax authority. The local tax authorities may then share that information with the tax authority where you are tax resident.

The following shall be deemed as a person subject to reporting:

1)   a physical person/individual entrepreneur who is considered a tax resident of a CRS member country,

2)   a legal entity or the controlling entity thereof that is considered a tax resident of a CRS member country.

Under the CRS, tax authorities require financial institutions such as “UNIBANK” OJSC to collect and report certain information relating to their customers’ tax statuses.

If you open a new bank account, invest in new financial products or change your circumstances in some way, we will ask you to certify a number of details about yourself. This process is called “self-certification” and we are required to collect this information under the CRS.

All financial institutions – that includes banks, insurers and asset management businesses – in participating countries/jurisdictions are required to be compliant with the CRS. The Republic of Armenia has been on the list of participating countries since 2024, therefore all banks in Armenia are under in the CRS. To review international agreements ratified by the Republic of Armenia related to the Standard, visit the official website of the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia (SRC). For the applicable provisions of the Tax Code of Armenia, visit: Link

In line with the CRS requirements, we will be asking you for your:

1.   Individual

• First name, last name, patronymic

• Registration address

• Residential address Activity/Business address

• Place of birth (for Individual and Controlling Persons)

• Date of birth (for Individual and Controlling Persons)

• Country(ies) and jurisdiction(s) of tax residence

• Taxpayer identification number(s) (TIN)

2. Legal entity

• Name

• Legal address

• Activity/Business address

• Information of controlling persons (the same as for natural persons)

• Country(ies) of tax residence

• Entity Type

• Taxpayer identification number(s) (TIN)

• Controlling Person Type for certain Entity Types (for Controlling Persons).

This will depend on where you live and your circumstances. Please contact a professional tax advisor or check the OECD website for more information on how to determine your tax residency, as “UNIBANK” OJSC cannot give tax advice, the client shall declare their tax residency status themselves.

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is US Law and requires financial institutions to identify US Persons and report in line with local FATCA regulations, based on citizenship. The CRS requires financial institutions to identify the tax residency of all our customers and in most cases report information on customers who are tax resident outside of the country/jurisdiction where they hold their accounts.

Even if you have already provided information under the United States government’s FATCA, you may still need to provide additional information for the CRS as these are different regulations with different requirements.

Under the CRS, we are legally required to establish the tax residency status of all our customers, even if you are tax resident in the same country/jurisdiction as where you hold your account. However, typically your details will not be reportable to the tax authorities for CRS purposes.

Once we have a valid self-certification on file, you will only be asked to complete another when you update certain information on your account, or if the Bank believe your reportable status may have changed.

“UNIBANK” OJSC is required to report your tax details under the legal obligations introduced by countries/jurisdictions participating in the CRS.

Non-financial Organizations are considered passive if more than 50% of their gross income for the previous calendar year or other reporting period consists of passive income (e.g., dividends, interest, royalties, rental income, capital gains, annuities, and similar types of income).

Physical persons exercising control over the organization, in particular, physical persons who directly or indirectly own 20 or more percent of the client’s voting shares (stocks, units), or directly or indirectly hold 20 or more percent of participation in the client’s authorized capital, or otherwise exercise actual (de facto) control over the client, and in the absence of a physical person meeting the specified requirements, officials exercising general or current management of the client's activities.

Unibank OJSC will respect your data privacy. We will only disclose your information to the relevant tax authorities if we are legally required to do so.

Customer information is protected by the Bank's internal legal acts and regulations, which are mandatory for all employees of “UNIBANK” OJSC. The Bank has all the necessary information security systems in place, it is only necessary that the client also follows the security rules.

We are required by law to verify the information provided in your self-declaration. We may ask you to provide a copy of your passport to verify your identity and to obtain other evidence of your tax residency stated in your self-declaration.

The following information is transmitted to the tax authority for each reportable person who is a tax resident of a foreign country (or jurisdiction):

• Identification details,

• Account balances or movements, and information about certain transactions carried out through the accounts (such as interest or payment data).

Based on your written consent, the information defined by the Standard is submitted to the State Revenue Committee via an automated electronic system.

By giving your consent, you authorize the Bank to disclose your banking secrecy information to Armenian state and/or local self-government bodies, and/or foreign state authorities and/or their designated representatives, in cases and under the procedures defined by Armenian legislation, including Article 80.2 of the Tax Code of the Republic of Armenia, as well as by the Standard and applicable international and/or intergovernmental agreements.

Under Armenian tax legislation, the Bank is obligated to provide information about a client's financial accounts if they meet CRS standard criteria. If you refuse to provide the information required under the Standard when opening an account, or do not consent to the transfer of such information to the State Revenue Committee, the Bank will decline to open a financial account.

For existing accounts, if you do not provide the required consent and/or information within 10 days from the date of the Bank’s request, the Bank will refuse to process (or will discontinue) transactions related to the financial account, except for those involving the transfer of your funds to an account in your name in another institution or the return of your funds to you.

A self-certification is a document through which customers declare their tax residency. Customers submit this document to establish their tax residency status. Self-certification must contain at least the following information:

• Customer identification data,

• Country or countries of tax residency (if the individual has dual tax residency),

• Tax Identification Number (TIN) in the country or countries where the customer is registered as a tax resident.

For a list of countries/jurisdictions participating in the CRS, alongside the dates that they will start exchanging information, please see the OECD CRS portal. You can find the list of Armenia's partner countries on the RA State Revenue Committee website.

For further information on your tax residency, please refer to the rules governing tax residence that have been published by each national tax authority. You can also find out more at the OECD Automatic Exchange of Information portal.