Hong Kong is the number one business city in Asia. It is the perfect base for companies that want to do business in mainland China and across the region. True, but to set up a company you need a bank account.
We all remember the “good old days”. When we could walk into any bank in Hong Kong in shorts, t-shirt, and flip flops and our new “green box” Hong Kong company containing the paperwork. Take a seat at the SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise) department. Get served coffee or tea and wait for at most 10 minutes to go into your new account application process. Fill out a few forms, explain to them a few of your business processes. Fit your company scope from a list of choices, and walk off. However, things started getting harder in the middle of 2014.
Amid mounting concern over money laundering, tax evasion and terrorism financing in the past decade, regulatory initiatives around the world have tightened their grip with two major international bodies – the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Tax Co-operation and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – to set the bar for an appropriate bank account application. Any breach of the rigid regulatory regime could not only invite hefty fines, but also threaten to kick the bank out of the US-dominated banking system – something that compels banks to make the simple act of opening a bank account fraught with difficulties and mountains of paperwork.
In Hong Kong, branches and subsidiaries of foreign banks and locally incorporated banks, come under elevated pressure today as well. It is taking the banks anywhere between one to two months to open an account, sometimes four months, and sometimes the banks refuse altogether to open an account. On top of that the banks are closing down accounts. Sometimes payments are frozen.
The usual question a bank will now ask is “why do you need to open an account in Hong Kong when you are resident in another country” – generally forgetting that Hong Kong has relied on Trade for centuries and having an account to run a business here (especially if working on the Mainland) is more or less a need not an option.
Jefferson Trust also agrees that it has become more difficult to get accounts approved than just 2-3 years ago, however, this also shows how important it is to choose a reliable corporate services provider with knowledge and contacts to get your account approved.
In the most cases for corporate bank account opening all director(s), shareholder(s), beneficial owner(s) and Nomine(s) if any must come to Hong Kong in person. However, Jefferson Trust can arrange your bank account to be opened remotely so you do not need to travel to Hong Kong. If you choose Jefferson Trust as your service provider the whole bank account opening process would be completed within 2-3 weeks.
Jefferson Trust’s team comes from true professional background. We are expertise in Money Laundering Law in Hong Kong as well as International Money Laundering Policies. We understand what policies banks (both in Hong Kong and outside Hong Kong) are using, therefore we can act according to their policies and make sure that our client’s bank accounts applications will get approved.
Setting up a bank account with Jefferson Trust has the following advantages:
- No need to travel to Hong Kong
- High success rate to get approved
- Multicurrency bank account, at no extra cost
- Online banking available
- Special products and services
- Multilingual support team
Please contact our specialists for the details at info@jeffersontrust.hk
