What do You Need to Open a Business Bank Account

With the expanse of the Internet and online services, setting up a business bank account has become a straightforward task. There is a lot of worldwide banks and electronic money institutions that offer business accounts of different kinds, and the majority of them can be opened just in a few days, online. Of course, the business bank requirements are fairly tighter, than those of a personal one, but in most cases, the company or bank will only need the basic information about your business, just as if you were opening a new account with any other local bank.

Get Your Paperwork Sorted

The list of documents you will need for getting a new account ranges slightly between different companies and jurisdictions, but is usually smaller than that of the local banks. Usually, there’s no credit check, which is especially good news for startups. Let’s overview, what is needed to open a business bank account with SatchelPay, from the documents point of view.

1. Your passport. Naturally, any company or bank will require the personal details of people who run the business, to authenticate them and verify that they have the powers to open such an account. This is a must, which provides security for your business in the first place.

2. Proof of address. A fresh document of the sort will be enough to prove your stated address, which may be required by the company or it’s country’s financial institutions, so you are accessible by snail mail personally. For SatchelPay, a utility bill or bank statement, translated into English or Lithuanian, will suffice.

3. Resume. A CV, a free-form overview of your personality, or even a link to your LinkedIn account will work as a proof of your real work with the business, you have enough experience to operate the company and to take financial risks, including those with your new account.

4. Business details. Some basic details over your business, such as sources of income, website, latest transfers of the company, marketing products, business cards, will be a plus to verify that your business is operational, and having an online banking worldwide will benefit it.

5. Corporate documents. Legally, any company, including SatchelPay, will require the same list of documents to be filed to the regulators together with your new account. Certificate of Incorporation, Memorandum, and Articles of Association, Appointment of directors and shareholders, Certificate of Good Standing for older companies, anything that is needed in your country, will be needed. That may sound like a lot, but if you are serious about your business, you already have a folder with these ready, aren’t you?

6. Supportive documents regarding your relationships with the customers, or documents for your initial funding. Any account provider will need these from startups to make sure that they will have their operation expenses covered with the fees from your operation. Everyone, including yourself, should be interested in working account with lots of incoming and outcoming transactions.

7. A selfie with your ID. Finally, this is required to verify, that you are opening an account in person, and it is not a scam, operated by someone who has all your documents stolen.

Filing the Application

Now let’s see how to set up a business bank acсount. After you have collected all the required documents and you are sure that they comply with the requirements, the only thing that is left for you to do is to fill the application form, which is done online.

Once everything is applied, the process of opening an account will take a few working days. Apart from the technical work itself, the provider will notify all appropriate regulators and do all the paperwork required on their side.

Here it is!

SatchelPay will open you an account with a unique European IBAN, which will be able to receive and send funds right away. Naturally, all the supported transfers are SEPA or SWIFT, so you don’t need to worry about supporting different payment systems or converting between them. Just as with any other current account, you can send transactions to any of the worldwide banks, directly and without any excessive fees. Your customers won’t notice your transition to SatchelPay, as they will still send you payments using the same comfortable set of credentials they are used to.