Account with brick and mortar bank for Hong Kong entity

[Kyriacos Zographos]

I am acting on behalf of a client and we are looking for a traditional bank account to support mainly USD payments for a Hong Kong entity. The UBOs are 3 individuals from Cyprus, Turkey and Italy and the company is involved in telecommunications (buying and reselling pre-paid cards).

Any suggestions?

 

[Sols]

Do they do any business in Hong Kong or Asia?

 

[Kyriacos Zographos]

no, i forgot to clarify that. They don't. Mostly it's in EU. That's why we‌ cannot approach Asian banks

 

[Gediminas]

Hey,

The only options I see are offshore banks. No onshore retail bank will open‌ an account for you (at least I don't believe so).

Look at Pacific Private Bank.‍ Let me know if you need any help.

 

[Kyriacos Zographos]

thanks. Have you been using it often? Are you confident about it? Because there are‌ certain challenges for transferring money in/out of Vanuatu

 

[Gediminas]

Yes, we bring many clients to them too. Some countries don't allow sending/receiving the money to/from‍ Vanuatu, but I see this rarely. If your transfers are coming from/to outside the EU,⁠ I don't see many difficulties.

In any way, I wouldn't think this is the only⁤ option for you. The fully licensed bank is not always the best, cheapest and fastest⁣ option. Your goal is to find a reliable financial institution (doesn't matter if it's EMI⁢ or a private bank).

 

[Sols]

Depending on size, age, and‍ the structure, you might have a few options in Mauritius and Europe.

If it's a⁠ new company with no presence in Hong Kong, your best bets are going to be⁤ EMIs like Wise, Wallter, Payoneer, WorldFirst, ConnectPay, and Verifo.

In this particular⁢ case, I'd say it's a poor recommendation because of the significant risks and limitations in︀ services this bank has.

Their entire payments infrastructure runs on a single correspondent account of︁ a Lithuanian EMI and only supports EUR, so the HK company would have to suffer︂ FX losses if they even can transact at all with through PPB. With the scrutiny︃ from ECB on the Lithuanian central bank, that's a fragile relationship. Not saying it will︄ happen, but it's a risk I wouldn't be comfortable with.

It's been a long time︅ now and they still seemingly haven't found anyone else who would take them on. That's︆ a red flag.

 

[Gediminas]

That's not true. The Lithuanian EMI is only used for SEPA‍ payments. They have more correspondent partners.

 

[Sols]

Do they have correspondent banking relationships with other‍ credit institutions, or are they running payments through an FX provider? The only listed correspondent⁠ is still just the EMI GlobalNetInt. And last I heard from one of the directors,⁤ that was all they had in terms of correspondence.

 

[Gediminas]

Globalnet is old news, they do SEPA transactions through their own EMI now (Pervesk).

Yes, one of their correspondents is a major Turkish bank.

 

[Sols]

That is good news! If they are now finally able to offer more than SEPA‌ through an EMI, I retract my concern.

Vanuatu is still one of the worst jurisdictions‍ on the planet, but if transactions run smoothly, that's what matters to most.

 

[Gediminas]

It's been like that for long long time 😎

 

[PaulKruger]

If you are still around I would like to know which Hong Kong brick and‌ Mortar bank you are using today or if you failed to find a valid bank‍ for your business?

 

[afos21]

we applied to Bank Frick. Application is⁠ still pending but it is very likely to be rejected because it does not satisfy⁤ the substance rule