Offshore Accounts
Opening offshore accounts for companies and individuals is one of our company’s core activities. If you would like to open an account in an offshore bank for yourself personally or for your firm, we suggest you take the following steps:
Offshore account opening procedure:
1. Notarisation of copy documents
2. Submission of documents, passport authorisation, completion of application forms
3. Depending on the bank, a waiting period of 3-9 working days
Some institutions require additional steps to open an account. For example, Hong Kong banks require the physical presence of the account holder. Therefore, the procedure involves travelling to China accompanied by our representative. For other banks (e.g., Swiss banks), such a feature may be a requirement for a substantial initial deposit, in which cases an analogue of a “savings account” is first opened, to which the required amount must be credited, and only after it is received, the bank sends a DIGIPASS or other means of management.
Opening an Account in an Offshore Bank. Requirements.
To open an account in an offshore bank, a fairly standard set of documents is required, which may vary slightly depending on the bank itself or the jurisdiction of the company’s registration.
For individuals:
- Notarised copies of all passports
- Description of sources of income (questionnaire)
- Contact details of the account manager
- Purpose of opening a bank account offshore
- Estimated monthly volume of transactions
- Purpose of main payments
For legal entities:
- Originals and copies of corporate documents (apostille + notary certification)
- Originals and certified copies of all passports of all beneficiaries
- Proof of registered address for each of the company’s members
- List of sources of company income (sometimes with supporting documents)
- Proposed list of counterparties and monthly volume of payments
- Estimated annual turnover on the account and the purpose of transactions
- Projected average monthly balances
Anonymous Offshore Account
Of course, the specific requirements differ in each case. However, opening an account with an offshore bank always implies disclosure of the names of the beneficial owners. This requirement is dictated by the KYC (“Know Your Customer”) interbank programme and the FATF requirements for banking operations. Therefore, unfortunately, a personal offshore bank account cannot be completely anonymous without the use of special schemes.
Dear Sirs, if you would like to open an offshore account, please contact our company. Our specialists will be happy to tell you about the peculiarities of various offshore banks, as well as all the details, procedures and “pitfalls” of working with these financial institutions.
