In view of the recent refusals to grant access to banking services to embassies and consular posts of third countries, to representations of international organisations established in Poland and to members of their staff, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has prepared information on the status of these entities and their staff in Poland. 

Special status in Poland 

Embassies (also called missions or diplomatic representations), consular posts (consulates) of foreign countries and representations of international organisations (also called offices, delegations, etc.) are entities representing a given country/organisation in Poland (1). 

Therefore, they have a special status in Poland resulting from the provisions of international law. Persons who are seconded staff of these entities also enjoy a special status, including the privileges and immunities due to them, in order to be able to carry out the functions entrusted to them in an unfettered manner and the members of their families residing with them in Poland.  

With regard to embassies and consular posts of foreign States, as well as their staff, these provisions are contained in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (hereinafter referred to as "the VCDR") and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (hereinafter referred to as "the VCCR"). The status in Poland of representations of international organizations is determined by international agreements concluded by Poland with a given organization (so-called hosting agreements). Due to their importance, the above mentioned agreements have the status in Polish law of international agreements ratified with the prior consent expressed in the Act, which, in accordance with Art. 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland means that they have ‘priority over a law if that law is incompatible with the contract’.  

These international agreements grant the above-mentioned entities and their personnel a number of privileges and immunities and impose a number of obligations on the receiving States, including, in particular, to grant diplomatic missions and consular posts of foreign States every facility for the performance of their functions.

In accordance with Article 25 of the VCDR and Article 28 of the VCCR, the authorities of the receiving State must make every effort to ensure that the diplomatic mission or consular post of a foreign State can carry out the functions assigned to them under safe conditions and in an unfettered manner, since any failure to do so may be subject to allegations of non-compliance with international obligations on the part of the sending State. Similar provisions are also included in these hosting agreements for representations of international organisations. 

Access to banking services One of the conditions for the performance of functions in Poland by these entities, and in the case of their staff, the normal functioning in Poland, is the possibility of access to services provided by banks (in particular opening bank accounts and making financial transactions through them). Therefore, unjustifiably restricting access to bank services for the above-mentioned entities would expose Poland to the allegation of infringement of 25 VCDR and Article 28 VCCR.

Furthermore, under Article 22 of the VCDR and Article 31 of the VCCR, the premises of both the diplomatic mission and the consular post, as well as the movable and immovable property of the mission or post, enjoy immunity from inviolability. In practice, this means that the premises of the mission and of the consular post are free from any administrative or judicial interference by the receiving State, from execution, precautionary measures, requisition, seizure, expropriation or other forms of forced detention. The property of the diplomatic agent necessary for the performance of his functions in the receiving State enjoys similar protection (Article 30 para. 2 VCDR). 

Inviolability of bank accounts

Although the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations does not expressly regulate the inviolability of the bank accounts of diplomatic missions and their staff, according to the norms of customary international law and the common practice of States, funds held in a bank account are not subject to any form of seizure or enforcement. This also applies to funds in the bank accounts of the representations of international organisations in Poland. 

Thus, in view of immunity from execution, which, unlike immunity from legal proceedings, is absolute and unlimited, the attachment of a diplomatic mission’s bank account is contrary to international law. 

However, this raises many problems in practice: for example, national labour courts may issue judgments against embassies – employers in breach of labour and social security law – for pecuniary claims/compensation of their local employees. In view of that immunity, the execution of the judgment (payment of the sums awarded) depends, in essence, on the goodwill of the establishment.  However, it should be emphasized that in such a case, when a foreign state refuses to enforce a final judgment of the court of the receiving state, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that state may take appropriate action through diplomatic channels - however, it does not have legal instruments enabling forced execution of the judgment. In practice, however, there have been cases where a bailiff, having a court decision with an enforcement clause, effectively seized a bank account. In such cases, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs always reacts by pointing to the violation of the execution immunity of a foreign state.

Special residence permit for staff 

According to the internal regulations of a number of banks, the condition for a foreigner to use their services is that they have a document certifying the right to stay in Poland. 

In this connection, it should be noted that persons who are staff of embassies, consulates or representative offices of international organisations, as well as their family members residing with them in Poland, due to their special status in Poland, are entitled to use a document confirming their status and the right of residence in Poland issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland (the so-called MFA card). 

This document is issued on the basis of Article 61 of the Act on Foreigners of 12 December 2013 (Journal of Laws 2024, item 769), which provides that ‘members of diplomatic missions and consular posts of foreign States and other persons treated as such by virtue of laws, agreements or generally established international customs shall be issued by the minister responsible for foreign affairs with documents proving the performance of their duties and by their family members in the domestic community with documents indicating their status’. 

The MFA’s card is a residence permit in Poland because, according to Article 62 of the Act, ‘the documents referred to in Article 61 entitle the holder to enter and stay in the territory of the Republic of Poland’. The model card (in annex) is set out in the Regulation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on visas and documents confirming the performance of the functions of members of diplomatic missions and consular posts of foreign states of 8 April 2015 (Journal of Laws 2015, item 535), issued on the basis of the authorisation contained in Article 63 of the Act.

Summary
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs requests that banks examine applications from embassies and consular posts of foreign countries, representations of international organisations in Poland, as well as their staff and members of their families for access to their services, taking into account the information presented above regarding the special status of these entities and persons in Poland. 

In addition, if necessary, the MFA asks for consideration to be given to supplementing the lists of residence permits entitling foreign nationals to use banking services with the document referred to in Article 61 of the Act on foreigners. 

In case of doubt, the Diplomatic Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs serves to clarify the status of missions, offices or representative offices of international organizations, their staff and family members living in a common household.

The publication was prepared by the Department of Diplomatic Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
PD.Skretariat@msz.gov.pl  
phone (22) 523 92 20

In addition, the General Inspector of Financial Information recalls that, as a Member State of the European Union, the Republic of Poland is obliged to transpose EU regulations related to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism into national law. Therefore, obligated institutions, including banks operating in the territory of the Republic of Poland, are obliged to comply with the Act of 1 March 2018 on counteracting money laundering and financing of terrorism, hereinafter referred to as the AML Act, implementing these EU regulations into national law.

The AML Act in Art. 1 requires the mandatory application of enhanced CDD measures in the case of business relationships or transactions involving a high-risk third country identified by the European Commission in a delegated act adopted on the basis of Article 9 of Directive 2015/849. The Directive defines high-risk third countries as those that have strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regimes (Recital 22). The list of those countries was established by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 of 14 July 2016 supplementing Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council by identifying high-risk third countries with strategic deficiencies and is updated by subsequent Commission Delegated Regulations.

In addition, pursuant to Art. 1 obligated institutions apply increased CDD measures each time in cases of higher risk. In accordance with Art. 2(10), an increased risk may be evidenced, inter alia, by the linking of a business relationship or occasional transaction with: 

1. a high-risk third country, i.e. a country identified on the basis of information from reliable sources, including evaluation reports of national AML/CFT systems carried out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and bodies or organisations associated with it, as not having an effective AML/CFT system or having significant deficiencies in that system,
2. a country identified by credible sources as having a high level of corruption or other criminal activity, financing or supporting terrorist acts, or with which terrorist organisations are associated,
3. a country in respect of which the UN or the EU has decided to impose sanctions or specific restrictive measures.

Therefore, in order to determine the higher risk, obligated institutions in their activities may take into account, among others: 

• the lists of high-risk countries under enhanced monitoring published by FATF(2),  
• lists of countries applying harmful tax competition/tax havens (e.g. list included in the Regulation of the Minister of Finance on the identification of countries and territories applying harmful tax competition in the field of corporate income tax, issued on the basis of personal income tax law and corporate income tax law, list included in the Council Conclusions on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes), 
• a list, published on the OECD website, of countries that have not adopted CRS (3) legislation ,
• Basel AML Index (4), 
• Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International (5), 
• Global Organised Crime Index (6), 
• Lists of countries supporting terrorism published by the US State Department (7).  

All activities of obligated institutions in relation to embassies, consulates and representative offices of international organizations and their staff in Poland should take into account the
above-mentioned legal regulations. 

 

 

 

1. The list of embassies and consular offices of foreign states, representations of international organizations, and their personnel is available on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the following address: https://www.gov.pl/web/dyplomacja/misje-dyplomatyczne-urzedy-konsularne-i-organizacje-miedzynarodowe-w-polsce
2. The Financial Action Task Force - https://www.fatf-gafi.org/en/home.html
3. CRS Common Reporting Standard is a guideline developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ‘OECD’ on a global standard for automatic exchange of information in tax matters, introduced by Council Directive 2014/107/EU amending Council Directive 2011/16/EU of 15 February 2011 as regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation; https://www.gov.pl/web/finanse/lista-panstw-uczestniczacych-crs
4. https://index.baselgovernance.org/
5. https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2023
6. https://ocindex.net/
7. https://www.state.gov/state-sponsors-of-terrorism/