Turnerlittle unable to open decent bank account for HK company

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black2

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Nov 27, 2017
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Hello everyone,

After countless hours of research, I was confident that I should get professionals to help me set it up, so after a few emails with Turnerlittle I paid for;
Totalling: £4784

The company was incorporated in just a few days after payment, however, bank account opening has taken about 3 months now;

They initially sold me on Switzerland bank, however, they rejected and Turnerlittle proposed ABC bank in Mauritius(rejected) and Euro Deniz IBU.
Both of them gave little confidence, I then asked for other options which where EMI's - TransferWise and Revolut - Both Rejected.

I once again asked for tier 1 banks in EU, EEA, US, CA and it turns out that none of the EU banks are able to open an account with a company that does not have business premises in HK.
Once again the best option they have is Euro Deniz IBU which still seems like a low tier bank compared to what I asked for from the start.

It seems like Turnerlittle doesn't have any other option for HK company except for Euro Deniz.

I don't see why I should settle for this "shady" bank when we are a low-risk business (digital marketing) and not trying to skip on taxes etc. Not to mention their fees.

What would you do in my situation?
At this time it seems like if I do not agree to open an account with EuroDeniz I will be stuck with HK company and no Bank account or merchant account - useless company.

I would really appreciate any tips on what to do at this point!

Thank you!
 
I totally agree with what already is said here. Most people who have incorporated their business in HK are going with NEAT - there are endless threads at OCT forum already.

The bank account opening is always the hard part when it comes to offshore companies, even for normal companies setup based on foreigners.

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Your problem (or at least one of them) is the nominee shareholder - many banks HATE that. Why would you use a nominee shareholder? What exactly do you think you are getting by it?
 
I agree with all. You have close to 0 chance to open high street bank account unless you willing to invest at least 500k-1m EUR.
 
Surprised to see Turner Little working with EuroDeniz IBU. I hope they aren't referring clients to the scammers we have been seeing discussed on this forum recently.

That aside, I don't think Turner Little is the problem here. I think it's your business and/or the structure itself.

But it would've been wiser of Turner Little to discuss the business with the banks before charging you for company setup. Maybe they did and the banks still said no, though.

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This is the probably the answer to your question.
 
I am in the same situation.
We have also founded a HK company without a nominee director.
It has already been 1 year but no bank accounts yet.They dont have a proper solution.I dont think they will be able to achieve it either.
They have many years in business but no working solutions.
I think we have lost 5k GBP so far for a useless HK company.
So sad but true.
 
I feel like you hide something OP.

Digital Marketing? Do you take Cryptocurrency into that? Just asking. Because if a broad range of Banks decline you over a marketing firm, I don't believe that.
 
maxmmm said:
maxmmm said:
Your problem (or at least one of them) is the nominee shareholder - many banks HATE that. Why would you use a nominee shareholder? What exactly do you think you are getting by it?
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Main reason for the company was privacy, which nominee should provide.

Suzy Emerald said:
Suzy Emerald said:
I assume TurnerLittle returns part of the money paid because they couldnt deliver?
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I'm about to find out.

Anye said:
Anye said:
I feel like you hide something OP.

Digital Marketing? Do you take Cryptocurrency into that? Just asking. Because if a broad range of Banks decline you over a marketing firm, I don't believe that.
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No, just eCommerce, I have no idea why they declined but must be due to company setup, since I never got any request to clarify what we do in details.
 
Normally you pay for the time they have spend on the account opening. That's the answer I got when I tried to open accounts in the past with different agency services.

Some don't even boughter to discuss why I couldn't get my money back, they just stopped reply!

It is a business where you need to take risk and you will lose money before you find and get the right solution for you. That's my experience.

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Does HK have public shareholder registrar? I'm not sure. Worth checking and then maybe getting the shares yourself and only keeping the nominee director for privacy.

I would try with HK banks, show them a good business plan with some agreements with HK companies (if you're really doing ecommerce it shouldn't be too hard to show some ties to HK companies) and you may have a chance
 
black2 said:
black2 said:
No, just eCommerce, I have no idea why they declined but must be due to company setup, since I never got any request to clarify what we do in details.
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E-Commerce with purpose of selling in Europe perhaps?

If yes, forget, you won't be accepted anywhere without a branch in EEA.
 
black2 said:
black2 said:
I once again asked for tier 1 banks in EU, EEA, US, CA and it turns out that none of the EU banks are able to open an account with a company that does not have business premises in HK.

Once again the best option they have is Euro Deniz IBU which still seems like a low tier bank compared to what I asked for from the start.
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Which country are you from and resident in firstly? If your residency or passport is sh*t then your doomed no matter what your business model is. Banks won't tell you this though sadly.

I think you need to lower your expectations of a Tier 1 bank for an offshore company. Have you considered a virtual office service in HK?

If you are willing to be more realistic about your goals then you can try opening with several HK EMI's instead:

https://www.neat.hk/https://www.currenxie.com/https://www.airwallex.com/
If you have a little more money to spend you can try a Tier 1 bank like DBS Bank. However investing in a virtual office and a local person over there may go a long way.

https://www.dbs.com.hk/sme/day-to-day/accounts/business-account

Last edited: Feb 20, 2020
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Everyone else is replieing to this thread but not Turner Little itself, I wonder why they don't comment on this 😕

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blueweb said:
blueweb said:
Everyone else is replieing to this thread but not Turner Little itself, I wonder why they don't comment on this 😕
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I guess it wouldn't be appropriate for Turner Little to air dirty laundry in public. It may end up in a situation where they will have to explain in public this clients specific circumstances that led to rejections. I wouldn't just take the word of the OP. Just by the fact this person says he wants a Tier 1 bank leads me to believe this person is middle eastern or from some developing country as no client in Europe refers to banks in such a way. However I could be wrong conf/(%.

I would like to know his passport and residency? ns2

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Hello @black2 , if your business will be Digital Marketing and thats it, make a try on Currenxie, HK based, seems they works well with that type of business.
Just take care on Nominee , not sure they will like that much.

Good luck
 
Hi,

I have been away on holiday and keep responses to the forum from me personally, hence the delay in replying to this post.

I am aware of the posting client and of course will not share information on here about their specific situation as I wish to maintain their privacy, but it is important to clarify a few points:

- When a client contacts us we always discuss their situation and circumstances with them to ensure that what they require can be delivered. If it categorically cannot be delivered we will tell you. If there is a chance of failure, we will tell you. We will always be open to the fact that banking is the most difficult part of any corporate structuring arrangement and unless we think success can be achieved we will not accept the business.

- If a client approached us and asked for a 'tier 1 bank' with a company incorporated anywhere in the world including HK, we would ask them to explain what this term means to them. It is an unusual term and means different things to different people. If as I assume is the case here the applicant means the likes of HSBC, etc then we would explain to them that this is very unlikely to be possible and allow them to make their decision to proceed with full information available to them. In most cases we would not accept the business as the chance of success is extremely slim.

- Banking for HK Companies can be arranged in many locations and are successfully opened on a daily basis. Occasionally applicants take offence at general bank charges, set up fees, currency exchange fees etc and decide that they do not wish to proceed with what I would consider perfectly acceptable solutions. Costs are slightly higher when working in the offshore sector and sometimes, albeit rarely clients rather than banks reject the solution. In these situations we will always do our very best to find an alternative and meet the clients specific requirements, however this is not always successful.

- We have not been asked to arrange banking with a 'tier 1 bank'.

- We have not tried to arrange an account with ABC Bank in Mauritius for this client. Other banks yes.

- Euro Deniz is not the only option, but if the client wishes to avoid establishing a place of business in HK or wishes to avoid travelling to HK, Singapore etc and wants to process the application on a remote basis, only a limited number of options exist.

- A Merchant Account has not been purchased on this occasion.

As I would say to any client, if the banking solution suggested does not work for you, talk to us and we will do our very best to find a solution to the problem. We are here to achieve success for our clients and while expectation in terms of bank types and locations may sometimes need to be relaxed a little so that you can actually achieve success there are ways and means of getting around problems.

I will of course be contacting the posting client immediately to see what can be done for them and expect to be able to offer a solution.

Regards,

James Turner

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Mark Rucken said:
Mark Rucken said:
This is literally copy paste from what I have been hearing from many people. I assume they applied in CIM bank in Switzerland. This bank stopped accepting IT related business or just simply consulting business, which is probably the case with you and why they rejected you. Then they applied in ABC, which accepts 1 in 20 clients. Revolut and TransferWise do not accept Hong Kong companies at all, so they probably never applied for the account or they did just out of respect, but got rejected within hours.

If you have a good business, you should try local banks in Hong Kong. They will accept you if you are clean and have a good background and if you are able to present clean banking history from your existing company in your country. Apart from that, try Neat.
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Interesting, if anyone would know about Revolut and Transferwise not accepting HK that would be TL, so it looks like they did it to seem like they are working hard. To be fair they did apply for them.

Is personal visit to HK mandatory to open account with local bank?

Martin Everson said:
Martin Everson said:
Which country are you from and resident in firstly? If your residency or passport is sh*t then your doomed no matter what your business model is. Banks won't tell you this though sadly.

I think you need to lower your expectations of a Tier 1 bank for an offshore company. Have you considered a virtual office service in HK?

If you are willing to be more realistic about your goals then you can try opening with several HK EMI's instead:

https://www.neat.hk/https://www.currenxie.com/https://www.airwallex.com/
If you have a little more money to spend you can try a Tier 1 bank like DBS Bank. However, investing in a virtual office and a local person over there may go a long way.

https://www.dbs.com.hk/sme/day-to-day/accounts/business-account
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Resident in Norway, Russian passport (totally understandable that passport will bring some issues)

I did optin for Virtual office in HK, as well as nominee director and shareholder.

Thank you for HK EMI's list, looks like I will be applying myself for them soon.


Additionally, we have a great history with "tier 1" bank in Norway - DNB, however, noone has been interested in any details of our business except for quick form for the bank where I wrote digital marketing and expected turnover and such.

So it seems like HK or the company formation is the main issue here and that applications are rejected at an early stage.

It's understandable that banks like HSBC etc. will be difficult to get, however, the expectations were high when TL told me that we shouldn't have any issues opening an account in Switzerland.

I accepted Euro Deniz IBU since TL told me in a very polite way that they've done they've done their part of the deal and that if I do not accept it then they will not try any other banks.
 
Same situation.
I dont have any other options.Seems like company will be dissolved at renewal date.No reputable bank account.Not even a proper EMI account was possible.
They simply dont have any other banking options.
I have known Turner Little for more than 10 years but my first experience with them was failure.I would expect different results from such a reputable consultancy company.
 
black2 said:
black2 said:
Interesting, if anyone would know about Revolut and Transferwise not accepting HK that would be TL, so it looks like they did it to seem like they are working hard. To be fair they did apply for them.

Is personal visit to HK mandatory to open account with local bank?



Resident in Norway, Russian passport (totally understandable that passport will bring some issues)

I did optin for Virtual office in HK, as well as nominee director and shareholder.

Thank you for HK EMI's list, looks like I will be applying myself for them soon.


Additionally, we have a great history with "tier 1" bank in Norway - DNB, however, noone has been interested in any details of our business except for quick form for the bank where I wrote digital marketing and expected turnover and such.

So it seems like HK or the company formation is the main issue here and that applications are rejected at an early stage.

It's understandable that banks like HSBC etc. will be difficult to get, however, the expectations were high when TL told me that we shouldn't have any issues opening an account in Switzerland.

I accepted Euro Deniz IBU since TL told me in a very polite way that they've done they've done their part of the deal and that if I do not accept it then they will not try any other banks.
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I cannot understand why people are formulating companies that had meaning 20 years ago, like Hong Kong. With your passport you should have gone to Bulgaria, you would have formated a company without problems and had a proper bank account in two days time...
 
I decided against proceeding with TL myself.

They asked me to make a deposit to proceed with bank account opening for an existing entity via live chat on the initial discussion.

They didn't ask me any kind of due diligence or forms to fill up.

Found it strange, any lawyer/accountant/introducer I have ever dealt with always ask for details before asking for any payment.
 
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