Opening an account in a foreign bank

Due to the military actions in Ukraine, a significant number of our citizens were forced to move to other countries. In addition to individuals, Ukrainian business also experienced displacement to other countries, many legal entities began to expand their sphere of activity abroad. In addition, many Ukrainians open their own business in other countries, where one of the first stages is opening an account in a bank .

As for natural persons, the minimum set of documents may be as follows:

• foreign passport of a citizen of Ukraine;
• local tax number (namely the host country, not the Ukrainian TIN);
• a residence permit in the host country or another document confirming the right to stay.

We immediately draw attention to the fact that in most European banks it is necessary to pay for opening an account , which at first surprises our fellow citizens, because in Ukraine banks open accounts for free, except that there may be a small fee in the future for maintaining the account or card. In addition, after submitting documents to a European bank, you can expect a decision not one day as in Ukraine, but one month.

Now let's move on to legal entities, here the procedure is already more complicated. First, all banks use the "Know your client" principle, which is especially applicable to legal entities about which banks want to get as much information as possible .

To start, the bank may invite :

• statutory documents;
• passport data of the director, beneficiary, if the opening is by power of attorney, then also the passport data of the attorney;
• legal address and address of actual business activity;
• information about business (field of activity);
• purpose of opening a bank account.

Further, depending on the jurisdiction, the bank may additionally request :

• information about the origin of funds;
• financial reports;
• additional information about the beneficiary (brief biography, marital status, education, actual location);
• information on whether the company is related to politically significant persons;
• bank recommendation - a letter from the bank of the country of registration that the company is its client;
• previous agreements with counterparties;

The bank needs such information to ensure the "purity" of the funds and not to serve "one-day firms", some banks may request a personal visit by the director .

The term of opening an account in a foreign bank can be from a month or more, depending on the country . It is a well-known fact that Austrian and Swiss banks can consider applications from companies resident in the post-Soviet space for up to six months.

When opening an account in a foreign bank, we recommend that you first contact lawyers in order to immediately submit the correct set of documents, because, as we can see, foreign banks consider applications for opening an account rather slowly, so if you resubmit applications several times, you will lose a lot of time and nerves.

Useful templates that can be useful when opening a bank account :
- decision of the board of directors on representation in banks (English), universal ;

- decision of the board of directors on representation in banks (English), UAE ;

- certificate and resolution to open account (one corporate director) ;

- letter of recommendation from the bank (on firm. letterhead), English, Ukrainian-English .