Bank Account Opening

For more than 17 years, we have concentrated our activities on company registration and opening foreign bank accounts.

Many businessmen face difficulties in opening and further maintaining working accounts in international banks. The modern financial world has become much more stringent in the field of regulation and more bureaucratic. Also, the current pandemic imposes many restrictions and greatly affects the timing of processes. We have to spend a lot of time and resources on solving issues that are not directly related to the business. And even opening an account in a bank as a result may not achieve the business goals set.

Our Purpose is to find an individual approach to each client and offer tailored solutions for each particular case.

Legex Ltd has more than 10 European partner banks, with some of which it has been working for many years, with others partner relations (referral) have been formed recently, but with each of the banks there is an understanding of the specialization of its work, compliance requirements, service terms & conditions, communication features of bank managers, support services and functionality of the banking IT system.

Thus, we can choose a suitable bank at the request of our client, as well as conduct negotiations with the bank, make a pre-check of the client, agree on the terms of service, help with the preparation and provision of documents, advise in the onboarding process, debug communications with the bank, etc. – in order to go through the whole process most effectively.

In this article, we want to give a generalized description of the requirements of banks for the information and documentation provided, and our comments on the process. We hope that this will help many businessmen to be more prepared in this matter, make the right choices and optimally approach the implementation of this kind of project.

Our Advantages

1

100% guarantee of opening account abroad

2

150 best partner banks around the world

3

Possibility to open an overseas account remotely

4

Providing a full range of documentation services

5

Solutions for ecommerce

Need help in choosing the jurisdiction?

Just contact us and we will do the best to help you with the choice according to the structure of your business.

Company Registration

1. Registration documents preparation

Bank Questionnaire (sometimes simple, sometimes large and complex, in some cases there may be several different questionnaires)
Description of the company's business (website, presentation, business plan, etc.)
Company registration documents
Bank statement (no older than 3 months). In case of a startup it needs to present a business plan
In the case of a complex corporate structure – an organization diagram, an indication of relationships and ownership interests
Passport of each director and beneficiary
Confirmation of the residential address of each director and beneficiary (utility bill, bank statement, etc., not older than 6 months, mobile services bill is not suitable)
CV of each director and beneficiary
Confirmation of the beneficiary's source of funds (bank statement for the last 6 months, tax return, certificate of payment of dividends, etc.)

Company registration documents:

Certificate of Incorporation
Memorandum and Articles of Association
Extract from the commercial register
Documents defining the shareholders, beneficiaries and directors of the company
Certificate of Incumbency or Good Standing
Confirmation of the company's office address (rent agreement, utility bills, etc.)
For regulated businesses – licenses and corporate policies (AML, KYC, PEP, CFT, EDD)

All documents must be submitted in English (or notarised copies of translations).
Since scanned copies of documents are delivered, they must be in good quality: scanned in high resolution (200+ dpi), saved in PDF format, with clear, neat file names.

2. Providing information about the customer base

Each bank asks which clients the company plans to serve in the bank, and makes an assessment of the level of risks of the represented clients. The extent to which the company is aware of its clients (Know Your Clients, KYC), controls mutual settlements with them, collects and stores accompanying documentation (scans of all contracts, invoices and other related documents) very clearly gives the bank a picture of how the client is interesting for the bank and what level of risk will be in working with him.

3. Providing information about payment schemes

We offer to make a summary table on the planned incoming and outgoing payments for the year (Excel table template):

Incoming payments: from which clients (no names are required, it is enough to specify the client's industry or the type of service provided), from which countries (geo), sending banks, the amounts and currencies of payments, the forecast of the monthly volume of payments for the year

Outgoing payments: to which customers, by types of goods/services, to which countries, recipient banks, the amounts and currencies of payments, the forecast of the monthly volume of payments for the year

Based on this information, banks offer appropriate terms of service and fees. If the stated amounts are not fulfilled or the actual payments differ significantly from the described ones, the bank may revise the terms of service, or even close the account.

The options for opening an account 'at random' usually end badly – the bank either refuses to make most payments, or will take very large commissions and make additional requirements (to keep an irreducible balance, making a deposit, strict limits, delays in making payments, detailed compliance checks of each payment, etc.).

We advise you to approach this task intelligently and take the time to draw up a detailed payment scheme. This is especially important if you plan to work with several banks and distribute payment flows between them.

4. The onboarding procedure usually looks like this:

Filling out the pre-check form, obtaining preliminary bank approval for onboarding, confirmation from the client of the selected bank(s)

Collecting all the required documents according to the bank's list, filling out bank questionnaires, providing the bank with a package of documents for consideration

Conducting a joint call of the company's managers and representatives of the bank

Answers to additional questions of the bank, collecting additional requested documents or information about the company, passing verification of the owners and directors of the company (most often – online identification through specialized services)

Getting approval from the bank, paying an invoice for onboarding (may vary depending on the bank)

Signing of a contract for banking services

Setting up accounts, getting bank details

5. Selection of several banks/payment systems

It is not always possible to solve all business issues with the help of one bank. Most often, companies open accounts with several banks and optimize financial flows depending on payment systems (SEPA/SWIFT), currencies, customer geography, risk levels, types of transactions, etc.

In addition to standard banks, there are two other types of financial institutions that can provide services in the field of payment processing:

PSP-Payment Service Provider

PSP-Payment Service Provider (Payment Service Provider) is a fast payment service that cannot keep client funds for a long time. The storage time of funds is usually limited to 24-48 hours. This type of service is convenient to use for transit payments.

EMI-Electronic Money Institution

EMI-Electronic Money Institution (electronic money organization) can not only provide payment services, but also keep client money on the account.

These organizations are not banks (they do not have a banking license) and work through correspondent accounts of partner banks (they have a banking license), but at the same time they can be much more flexible in customer service and less demanding in terms of compliance.

One of the possible solutions is to open accounts in one or more banks, as well as in several payment systems, which will allow you to close all the requirements for processing payments of different types.

6. The cost of onboarding and servicing in banks

The cost of onboarding strongly depends on the bank/payment system. It is rarely free. Usually the price starts from 500 Euros and can reach up to 2,000-3,000 Euro.

See full Price List

The fees of payments depends on the payment system – SEPA (European, in Euro only) and SWIFT (international). Fees for payments can be fixed or interest-based, with or without restrictions on the minimum and maximum amount of commission.

Also, the fees offer proposed by the bank will depend on the conclusion of the compliance, the level of risk of the customer base and the presented scheme/payment volumes.

Request us opening the bank account

Just contact us and we will do the best to help you with choosing the right bank amongst more than 150 bank-parners worldwide.

Send inquiry on bank account opening

Frequently Asked Questions

How much time is required to open a bank account?

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Do you give any guarantee?

Do I need AML/KYC officer?

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