Bank account for Estonian company

[Maitrey]

Dear forum members, please advise.

I have an Estonian company and use Wise for our everyday business.
I understand that it is dangerous to fully operate an enterprise using only an account in Wise, despite the fact that now it works perfectly, I had very bad experience with Revolut.

Please advise in which real bank can I open an account for an Estonian company?

Our business is completely transparent, I am the sole shareholder of the company, EU citizenship.
I don't live in Estonia, but I really like its system, the accounting company that serves us, I like Estonian rules and laws. Estonian banks really want connections with Estonia, clients from there, etc., what are the alternatives, just in case?

Once in Bulgaria, I opened a company and a bank account without questions in a couple of days. But in Estonia, this trick did not work. Well, what should I now forget a convenient almost free company in EE and work through the Bulgarian one? Or is there a chance to tie a bank account to it?

Thank you for sharing your experience!

 

[Don]

All banks will open. You just need︅ to make the business and yourself palatable enough for the bank to consider accepting you︆ as a client. There are also banks outside of Estonia that work well (possibly even︇ your home country could be an option)

 

[Maitrey]

It looks like every bank wouldn't ask so many questions if⁤ will show them the transactions for period of one year from Wise and EU docs⁣ etc. But... I tried to open an account in my local bank PKO, biggest Polish⁢ bank, they told me if I will show them the contracts with Polish entities, there︀ may be a chance otherwise sorry.
That's why I'm asking for an advise from you,︁ Sirs.

 

[Forester]

Exactly.
Not a surprise.

I hope it is 🙂
Not true.
PKO is surely︆ a wrong choice for you.
To be able to give you a well-founded advice, please︈ share
- your current residence country (Poland, I guess?)
- what is the business of︉ your company
- what currencies you need to operate with
- what are the destinations︊ of future outgoing and incoming payments
- what is the expected monthly and yearly turnover︋ (summarized for all the currencies)
(Sorry for being so inquisitive but you will hear these︌ questions from any bank/EMI.)
And last but not least: What do you mean by “a︍ real bank”? 🙂

 

[Maitrey]

- Yes, Poland
- Brokerage in field of shipping (vessels,︁ delivery of the vessels to the clients)
- EUR (rarely USD)
- Destinations EU, UK,︂ UAE, Ukraine, Turkey
- 100-300k, may be more may be less (different from year to︃ year)
- Real bank I think is a licensed bank with a guarantee of 100k︄ which at least not block the account suddenly

 

[Forester]

Well,
No problem...
It looks really innocent / un-problematic. Who are your customers? I hope not some politically⁠ exposed persons or high-risk nationals?
No problem...
No problem...
Slightly problematic with EUR but doable.
A huge problem. A high-risk country.
Doable.
No problem.
A guarantee of 100k is EEA/CH specifics...
No reasonable financial︁ institution does.

To sum it up, you are asking for a transactional offshore bank account︂ for an EE company that has no account in the country of incorporation and deals︃ i.a. with one high-risk region; demanding the account to be opened with a bank with︄ EEA/CH licence. Unfortunately, I am afraid that your chances are low, except if
1) you︅ try to open an account with a bank in some EU country where you have︆ some clients that you are able to refer to
or
2) you are able to︇ deposit some remarkable amount of money (6 figures) in a bank and try (optimally with︈ a good introducer) to negotiate with some LI or CH bank
or
3) you forget︉ about demanding a 100k guarantee (BTW, it is not so worth as it seems, in︊ business context) and go with some offshore bank outside EEA or with some reputable EMI︋ (that is practically the same if you need just payment services and not loans, letters︌ of credit etc.)...

Perhaps option (1) is closest to your expectations? (If you name some︍ countries where you have clients, maybe someone will be able to direct you to the︎ particular bank...)

 

[Maitrey]

Oh yes, you are absolutely right, I totally agree with every word.
What do you‌ think, what kind of EMI can be called reputable today?
I mean one that doesn't‍ suddenly close your account for transferring 50,000 like many EMIs.

 

[Forester]

Just to name a few: Currenxie, Statrys, Intergiro, perhaps even Verifo, Bunq,⁠ N26 (BTW, the last two are not EMI's but neobanks, i.e. with a banking licence⁤ but digital so more open to offshore subjects).
But I encourage you to share the⁣ EU country names where you have clients, as it can really help re: (1) above⁢ 🙂

 

[Maitrey]

This countries are Germany, Netherlands, Bulgaria and UAE if outside of EU. And⁤ the specifics of the business is that there can be silence on the account for⁣ a whole month for example.
For our purpose to be honest EMI is also OK,⁢ the only thing I would like is some kind of predictability from a financial institution︀ (as far as it is generally possible today). To at least first ask for documents,︁ and then block, and not vice versa.

 

[Forester]

Well, it's not bad. I must admit that I have no experience with‌ banks in Bulgaria. Nevertheless
– banking in UAE is a disaster for non-local companies (even‍ for local ones, in some cases);
– banking in NL is sometimes problematic (although Bunq⁠ is probably not so bad and it is NL);
– but DE is quite OK.⁤ I will think it over. You are able to travel there to open an account⁣ in person, I presume?
No problem.
I understand, fully 🙂

 

[Maitrey]

Dear Sir, thank for yours.
It's not a problem to visit Germany any time. In‌ addition to Wise, I think I'll open a spare account, for example Zen.Com, I use‍ them as a private multi currency card when travelling from time to time, works perfect.⁠
Intergiro at first glance looks decent but they don't accept SWIFT payments from UAE, I'm⁤ not sure, Zen accept because both use Currency Cloud and GB IBAN for payments outside⁣ of SEPA.

 

[pfser]

You can try Paysera, they have SWIFT payments.

 

[Forester]

You are welcome.
OK.
I will‍ get back later re: Germany.
Really a good idea 🙂
Zen is not bad; although IMO less predictable than e.g.⁢ Intergiro, their support sucks sometimes.
Well, to the︂ best of my knowledge, Intergiro uses different payment processors depending on the individual circumstances and︃ industry of the client; and different clients can have different conditions that can be negotiated.︄ The Currency Cloud is generally working very well but the true is that they do︅ not like some destinations for business payments.
Not a bank, just a LT EMI. Perhaps not bad,︇ used IMO quite a lot but not a top-class.

 

[pfser]

I agree with you, but It‍ was one of the very first EMIs in Europe, and so far, so good. For⁠ the shipping business, it works pretty well. Not to mention it has polish speaking support,⁤ which can be beneficial for the author.

 

[Forester]

I was‌ thinking about your case a little bit and the result is as follows:

You need‍ to perform payment operations with EU, UK, UAE, Ukraine and Turkey. (So the only destination⁠ that really represents a problem is the Ukraine, see above.)

1) There is one specific⁤ DE bank that, under some circumstances, IMO will serve you well – KT Bank (⁣KT Bank AG). It is a daughter company of a Turkish bank (Kuveyt Türk),⁢ so payment operations with Turkey are absolutely flawless, it's accustomed well to UAE (they even︀ open accounts in AED, if necessary) and as Turkish subjects have absolutely no problems re:︁ trading with UA, I think it will not be any problem for KT Bank either.︂ (EU and UK represent no troubles anyway.) There can be only two pitfalls
– it︃ is an islamic bank (Islamic Banking | KT Bank AG), so you must︄ be fine with it (I am, personally, as I see nothing wrong in it but︅ YMMMV);
– I am not 100% sure under what conditions they now onboard non-resident companies.︆ Non-resident individuals they onboard even remotely, for a company account you must visit a branch︇ and the spectre of services is somehow limited – but it is defintiely worth checking.︈

2) As of the payment destinations and the fact that you do not have an︉ account in the country of incorporation, for another DE bank that can fit you you︊ have better chance with some introducer. (I do not think that for example N26 is︋ a good fit for you although it is reasonably reputable and somehow predictable.) I can︌ perhaps direct you somewhere – I'll send you a PM.

3) You can also pick︍ up a solution when you open two accounts with reasonable EMI's; one would be mainly︎ for UA-related operations – my tips are Verifo or Paysera (you can use it well️ for EU-related operations, too, as for SEPA); and another for the rest – my tip‌ would be Currenxie (they do not like UA-related operations, unfortunately; and for SEPA they use‍ LHV bank that is rubbish). (I do think that it is not wise to have⁠ only one EMI account and I would leave Wise ASAP.)

Good luck! 🙂

 

[joffreylol]

Currenxie isn't using LHV for SEPA anymore, they are using Citi in UK instead.

 

[Forester]

Really? (I believe you 🙂 ) Even less than half a year‍ ago they were still using LHV... Nevertheless, even generally it makes a good sense, as⁠ for their Global Accounts / SWIFT payments they are using Citi HK (I know that⁤ it has not changed).
A fully positive information, thanks for sharing.

 

[joffreylol]

It's a very recent change, they stopped using LHV at the end of January 🙂