Fidesta Ltd can help with bank account and Electronic Money Institution (EMI) account opening for offshore companies. This is a standalone service. We can also assist with account openings for physical individuals and entities originally established by other company formation agents.
The territory of British Virgin Islands is a well-regulated and highly popular jurisdiction for incorporating international business companies. It’s an excellent “company” jurisdiction.
The banking options in BVI itself, however, are rather limited. The local banking sector in BVI mostly focuses on serving the local businesses and general population. It is also quite risk averse. While opening a local BVI bank account for a BVI Business Company is possible, it is hardly the easiest or the best choice.
Some offshore company owners attempt a “DIY” approach by opening accounts directly in their home countries. This poses severe risks to the company owner, including personal tax liability. Operating and managing an account from your home country can make the offshore company taxable there, which should be avoided if your goal is tax optimization. (See our Company Management section for a more detailed explanation of those risks).
We offer bank account and EMI account introductions in several offshore financial centers. This service is not limited to companies where Fidesta acts as the registered agent. We regularly assist companies formed elsewhere too.
The right choice of bank or EMI depends heavily on several variables:
- The background of the company owner (country, experience, occupation)
- What type of business the company conducts, and where
- Money: minimum and average account balance, pattern of transactions
- Which financial services are needed (and which are not).
Following are general guidelines for account opening for an offshore company.
The company formation and bank or EMI account opening are two different services. Forming an offshore company is generally quite straightforward. Opening a decent bank or EMI account is not. Account opening for companies established in known offshore “tax haven” jurisdictions can be incredibly difficult, time-consuming and frustrating.
We live in a very regulated world. To open the account for an offshore company, all banks and EMIs will require detailed personal and business information from the owners and controllers of the offshore account.
Every bank or EMI must identify the actual beneficial owner(s) of the offshore company. Not just identify. As per modern “know your client” rules, every bank and financial institution must fully know the professional and personal background of their customers, including their source of wealth, assets and cashflow. That information must not just be “known”. It must be documented.
Therefore, all company owners, shareholders, directors, officers and account signatories must provide extensive documentation about themselves and their business. Required documents typically include:
- Certified passport copies or carrying out personal or online identification.
- Proof of address (e.g., utility bills or bank statements).
- Professional reference letters or bank references.
- Detailed business plans and/or financial statements.
These documentary requirements vary, depending on the chosen bank or EMI.
Account opening without personal presence
Banks who are “used to” (specialize in) international clients do accept new account openings without personal presence of the account owners – in particular, when the account opening is handled by an approved intermediary, such as Fidesta.
That being said, a personal visit by the company owner to the bank is always desirable. This eliminates one of the formal risk factors for the bank, namely that the account was opened for a client who was never seen. For that reason, many conservative banks still insist on personal visit for the account opening.
Electronic Money Institutions (EMI’s), by contrast, typically can complete client onboarding fully remotely, by relying on sophisticated software-driven client identification procedures.
Bank accounts vs. EMI accounts
Both banks and EMI’s offer IBANs (International Bank Account Numbers), SWIFT/SEPA payments, and multi-currency accounts, but they serve distinctly different client types and needs. Therefore, making the right selection is crucial.
Traditional banks
Tend to offer a broader range of services, such as lending, trade finance, merchant facilities, and asset management servcices. Bank deposits may also qualify under some government deposit-protection law. Generally, banks have longer, stricter onboarding processes. Banks are more risk-averse in their selection of clients and, increasingly, accept only large accounts.
EMIs
Licensed payment institutions rather than deposit-taking banks. Faster, fully remote onboarding, more receptive to small clients, higher-risk industries, and international ownership, with core payment functionality (IBAN, cards, FX, SWIFT/SEPA), but no lending and no deposit guarantees. Can be quite specialized in some specific type of transactions or client model.
Which of the two, or which combination, is appropriate depends on your business activity, turnover, ownership structure and risk profile. We can advise on this once we understand your business.
Who this service is for
- Companies incorporated by us, including BVI companies and TurnKey Platinum companies.
- Existing BVI companies formed by other registered agents
- Companies incorporated in other offshore jurisdictions (e.g. Belize, Seychelles)
- Onshore or EU companies seeking an additional international bank or EMI account
- Businesses in fintech, e-commerce, trading, consulting, and other sectors that traditional banks often reject.
If your company was not formed by us, we simply need a complete corporate file before we can proceed, as explained below.
Already have a company with another registered agent?
Transfer it to us, and the account introduction is on us.
If your existing company, BVI or otherwise, transfers its registered agent services to Fidesta, we will provide the bank or EMI account introduction free of charge, aside from the bank’s or EMI’s own compliance and onboarding fees.
Prefer to keep your company where it is?
That’s fine too. We can still assist with an account introduction without a transfer. In that case, our support is limited to a select range of banks and EMIs that we are able to work with on an introduction-only basis, without acting as your registered agent.
Disclaimer: acceptance of a company transfer, as well as the success of any bank or EMI account opening, is subject to KYC approval and an assessment of the client’s and the business’s background. Neither is guaranteed.
Service deliverable (and what it’s not)
The bank or EMI account introduction fee, as quoted in our fees schedule, is not a fee payable for the actual account opening. Mere payment of this fee does not guarantee the opening of the account.
As the name suggests, the introduction fee is payable for professional assistance and services rendered by Fidesta during the introduction of a client to a particular bank or EMI. This service includes the provision of and assistance with the completion of all application forms, preparation of the company documents in the exact format required by the bank or EMI, guidance and advice during the compiling of the accompanying due diligence information (which ultimately must be provided by the actual client), assistance with the submission of the entire application file and all subsequent follow up.
Using our account introduction service usually significantly increases the chances of a positive result. However, we do not guarantee the success of the account opening. The success of a bank or EMI account opening for an offshore company mostly depends on the specifics of the actual client and his actual business. These are variables that are out of our control. They cannot be influenced merely by paying a fee. Banks and EMIs routinely reject new clients based on their internal client acceptance policies, if they find the individuals involved in the company in any way questionable or if the business model is deemed high risk.
What we need from you
If we are the registered agent of your company, we already hold the main corporate documents on file. If your company was incorporated elsewhere, we will need a current corporate file before we can approach any bank or EMI on your behalf. That includes:
- Certificate of incorporation
- Memorandum and articles of association (or equivalent constitutional documents)
- Certificate of good standing (if the company is more than a year old)
- Register of directors and register of shareholders (or equivalent)
- Certified identification and proof of address for all beneficial owners, directors, and signatories
In addition, a detailed description of business with logical information and realistic cash flow forecasts as well as a detailed CV of the company owner showing experience in the intended business are essential for account opening. We cannot create this information for the client, as it is deeply case-specific.
Why are you getting rejected?
Risk-based due diligence and compliance have turned into a very high cost for any financial institution. Dozens, hundreds or even thousands of employees in a bank or EMI are employed in various compliance roles. Laws require all accounts to be monitored, and transactions scrutinized for signs of money laundering or other illicit activity.
Therefore, all banks and EMIs evaluate each prospective customer in terms of regulatory risk versus the benefit. How much in fees and charges will the customer bring versus how much will it cost to maintain that account. Clients who are perceived as “high risk” (which can be caused by a wide variety of reasons) will be rejected straight away or asked to leave later.
The bank’s perceived risk from a locally owned and operated, generally understood domestic business is usually low. That’s why the neighborhood bakery or mom-and-pop grocery store will find no problem in opening a bank account in the local bank branch.
When You go offshore, everything changes! By definition, an “offshore” client will always be considered high-risk. From the bank’s perspective this means that the overhead cost to maintain the file of such client will be higher, and the compliance procedures for such client will need to be more frequent, thus more costly. This can only be justified for high-value clients.
This is something not widely understood. Many people still think that by applying for a plain bank account they are doing a “favor” to the bank. Nothing can be further from the truth. Especially with offshore accounts.
Long-gone are days when the bank needed your deposit. They don’t. Most banks nowadays have access to infinite and extremely cheap financing from the central banks and the money-market, where all the large institutional money resides. Banks generally don’t need your money. They can get more of it elsewhere, cheaper and with less trouble.
Banks are not interested to simply keep small amounts of money on current account with little or no movement. Especially, if that current account belongs to a high-risk customer such as an offshore company. It’s simply not worth the trouble and not worth the risk. The bank will also suspect that you are a potential money-launderer until proven otherwise.
Banks expect to earn.
Banks don’t earn on plain tiny balances on current account. It’s just a liability for them.
Bank’s earn on value-added services. Ideally – asset management, financial instruments, securities. That’s reserved only for the large private banks and only for the wealthy customers with “lazy” money. If not that, at least credit cards, merchant services, frequent payments, foreign exchange, trade financing – any service which is itemized in the bank’s pricelist.
If the bank won’t see how it will make profit on your account, why should it even bother?
Which all goes to say that your expectations should be commensurate with your abilities.
We try our best to determine which bank or EMI is most likely to accept your business while at the same time being most suitable for your requirements. Still, it will be the client specifics that will mostly determine the success of the account opening.
Bank secrecy
The banks and EMIs are required to disclose financial account information about their clients (including owners of client companies) in two cases – in tax matters and in cases of criminal investigation.
Regarding tax matters the information is shared automatically to the tax authorities of the country where the beneficial owner of the company resides. Information sharing is required and regulated by FATCA (“Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act’’) in respect US persons and by the CRS (“Common Reporting Standard”) regulations in respect to beneficial owners from the 120 countries who have committed to the CRS. Under these regulations, financial institutions collect certain information (such as account names and balances at the end of each financial year) and provide it in bulk form to the tax authority of the respective country. (In particular, this means that the country where you personally are tax resident is more important than the country where your offshore company is registered.)
We strongly suggest you search or ask your favorite AI assistant about your potential exposure to FATCA and CRS regulations and what exactly they mean for your business.
In regards criminal matters, the confidential information on a bank’s client may only be divulged under a proper criminal investigation to the respective police authority.
Otherwise the information is strongly protected by the banking regulations and cannot be disclosed to any persons, authorities (other than police or tax authorities according to strict procedures) or any other third parties under any circumstances. Severe financial and criminal penalties await anyone, who divulges such information.
Note on professionally managed companies
When corporate or individual directorship services are provided by us (Fidesta), we are to sign as either joint signatory or sole signatory on all of the company’s bank and EMI accounts. This is in-line with the prudent corporate governance requirements which are part of the applicable BVI regulations. The directors are by default presumed to run the general affairs of the Company and can be held liable for money laundering, drug trafficking, terrorist financing and mismanagement of the company.
This does not apply where we are only providing an account introduction service for a company that continues to be independently managed and directed by its own owners. In those cases, we act purely as introducer, not signatory.
Apart from the usual fixed responsibility fees for providing board membership positions, we will also charge an annual fee for acting as authorized signatory on each bank or EMI account. A fee for the execution of any transfer instruction will also be charged, unless agreed otherwise.
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We have answers to pretty much every questions you may have! If you still don’t find what you are looking for contact us!
No. We assist with bank and EMI account introductions for companies we have formed and for existing companies incorporated elsewhere, in the BVI or in other jurisdictions.
Yes. We regularly introduce existing companies to EMIs, provided we receive a complete and current corporate file and the business profile is one the EMI is likely to accept.
Yes. Private accounts can also be opened, subject to status and general requirements as described above.
No provider can honestly guarantee this. We guarantee our professional effort in preparing your application and presenting it to suitable institutions; the final decision always rests with the bank or EMI.
Let us help you find the right solution!
Please feel free to contact us with a more detailed information on Your banking requirements and we just might be able to suggest You a suitable bank and provide bank account introduction service to your business company