The bank is to start operating next year provided that it ensures the initial capital from small and medium-sized shareholders and institutions and provided that it obtains a licence from the Croatian National Bank.
The Vojvodina Development Fund thus becomes the bank's first share-holders.
The purpose of the Tesla Banka is to encourage the reconstruction and development of formerly war-stricken areas in Croatia, give loans to small and medium-sized entrepreneurship, stimulate the equal developments of all areas. as well as to help enhance the economic relations between Croatia and Serbia.
"It is impossible to imagine the return of Serbs to Croatia without ensuring conditions for their existence," Pajtic said after the agreement-signing ceremony in Novi sad, the capital of Vojvodina.
This Serb bank should facilitate efforts of Croatian Serbs to open small and medium-sized companies, he said adding that Vojvodina would be the bank's first share-holder, holding probably 10 percent of the stock.
Pajtic explained that EUR 1.5 million would not be withdrawn from the provincial budget but from the Development Fund and that Vojvodina would also join in the project by offering logistical support via Novi Sad University and other institutions.
Pupovac said Vojvodina had been the first to support his initiative for establishing a Serb bank in Croatia.
"I have notified (Serbian) President Boris Tadic about everything and I expect the government in Belgrade to join in the implementation of this project," Pupovac said, calling on Croatian and international institutions to follow them, too.
Describing the bank as an instrument of firmer cooperation between Serbia and Croatia, this Croatian Serb parliamentarian announced the opening of the bank's branch offices in Knin, Vukovar, Glina and some other towns after its main offices were set up in Zagreb.