Regardless of the presence of special requirements from the business model for opening a “merchant” account, when choosing a bank, it is necessary to consider the following:
While the need to open an account with an offshore bank may be obvious, choosing a specific bank in a specific jurisdiction is not so trivial. For example, due to the specifics of internet entrepreneurship, namely, because, as a rule, all payments in it are electronic payments, the approach to choosing a bank can fundamentally differ from choosing a bank for classic businesses. The usual criteria, such as the cost of service, the convenience of internet banking, and the availability of support services in Russian, in this case, fade into the background. And the most important question is the possibility of opening a so-called “Merchant account”, necessary for accepting payments from credit and debit cards. You can learn more about merchant accounts or payment acquiring in the relevant sections of our website.
Regardless of the presence of special requirements from the business model for opening a “merchant” account, when choosing a bank, it is necessary to consider the following:
1.
It is desirable that the bank is located in the same country as the operating company; this eliminates the need to make international payments each time to pay for the current costs of maintaining the company
2.
It is necessary to carefully study the tariffs for transactions; in some cases, they can reach 50 euros for any (!) operation to withdraw funds
3.
In order to avoid difficulties with the withdrawal of funds, it is necessary that the bank issues VISA credit cards for citizens of the “Visa Eastern Europe” zone
4.
Respectable European banks, as a rule, require the disclosure of the names of the true owners of the business (beneficiaries)
5.
Respectable European banks can report to tax authorities, including Russian ones, information about the income of foreign individuals who have opened accounts with them
6.
Banks of classic offshore jurisdictions, as well as small banks operating on the verge of legality in the Baltic States and Oceania, can “turn a blind eye” to many things and offer very favourable conditions. The price for this is often the bank’s right, in case of any suspicion, to freeze accounts indefinitely
7.
In some particularly attractive jurisdictions, there may be a statutory tax on the withdrawal of funds for any reason for payment from the territory of these jurisdictions. Moreover, bank representatives, as a rule, do not report this
8.
It is also important to know the type of bank license in payment systems such as VISA or MASTERCARD. If the license is valid only in the region of the bank, then it may turn out that the credit or debit cards issued by the bank work, for example, only in Latin America. An attempt to withdraw money from them, for example, in Moscow or Kyiv, will fail.
Offshore banking is very diverse. Unfortunately, banks, like any normal organisations, carefully hide their negative sides. As a result, it can be very difficult to make the right choice.
Before opening an account with a foreign bank, we recommend that you consult with our specialists