FEATURES OF OPENING BANK ACCOUNTS FOR BUSINESS IN THE EU

Starting a business and doing business in the European Union has always been attractive to a large number of foreigners. Many companies specifically register firms, in the form of branches, separate/independent legal entities or legal entities with a parent company's share in it, in the EU in order to attract their business to counterparties, obtain a loan for the business and usually scale it up.

Registration of a legal entity in the European Union does not cause many difficulties, unlike opening an account in banking institutions. So, let's look at the reasons for the bank's refusal to open a current account for a legal entity and the main conditions that must be met for a successful opening.

Why they may refuse to open an account in EU banks

The pan-European banking system is aimed at detecting the legalization of funds acquired illegally, their laundering, full monitoring of the circulation of funds and the withdrawal of cash from business circulation. To open a bank account for a legal entity, you will need to provide a lot of information, information, so be prepared for this.

When registering a business, statutory and registration documentation, you assign the appropriate authorized persons to exercise control, actions and transactions in your company.

Many legal entities are registered for a certain type of activity, for example, the purchase and further resale of goods, which does not require a large staff, and sometimes one director is enough. In such cases, in order to optimize the costs of maintaining the staff of such a company, the owners decide to be the sole owner, director and beneficiary. In this case, a logical question arises whether the owner-non-resident of the country and even the EU (a person without citizenship of this country, without permission for temporary or permanent residence in this country) can be a director of the same company.

According to the national legislation of many countries (EU), in rare cases, such as Switzerland, a person who is a non-resident of the country can be the director of a company, but other difficulties arise here, such as opening a bank account.

EU Account Opening Procedure

To open a bank account for a legal entity, in most EU countries, a representative of the company authorized for such actions in accordance with the charter of the company must personally contact the banking institution, this is the director, and in some countries, like Romania, the administrator of the company. The bank manager asks the representative for the necessary list of documents, an explanation of understanding and work experience, conducting this type of economic activity. Asks to fill out applications in the prescribed form, if necessary, preliminary agreements with buyers, sellers, an office lease agreement, and sometimes employment contracts with employees.

It is logical that if the representative does not speak the national language or English, and also if he came with an interpreter, the bank manager has a question whether such a representative has an understanding of what he is doing, what he is submitting and what he is signing. If a bank employee does not trust such a representative, he refuses to open a bank settlement, if such an account is already open, then blocks it, even with the company's money. This leads to a lot of problems.

Optimal solution

Therefore, the most optimal solution is to employ a local resident person as a director, according to a fixed provision in the statutory documentation, such a director can be limited in managing funds and only the beneficiary, that is, you, will have access to them - this is called a trust account.

The law firm "Prikhodko & Partners" carries out registration activities, legal, consulting, accounting support in almost all EU jurisdictions, will help you with the selection of a trustworthy resident director so that you can start, run and develop a business quickly and safely.