How possible can small to medium enterprise (“SME”) open a corporate bank account in Hong Kong?

Published On - 31 juillet, 2019

Albert Hui Actu Orbis

This question is definitely the number-one key concern of foreign investors who wish to set up companies in Hong Kong.

Ever since one of the largest banks in Hong Kong was heavily fined in the United States for covering money laundering services, other banks subsequently stepped up their due diligence process. At the same time, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority had also request banks to adopt a ‘Know-Your-Client’ approach – meaning that banks should be well informed of their client’s business nature. It has been thought that opening a corporate bank account by SME in Hong Kong would be much harder than before.

Despite the fact that some companies did get rejected due to reasons such as not providing enough information to the bank, successful cases are still the majority. Her are some helpful tips:

  • Be well-prepared to present your business plan
  • Provide substantial evidence of your business (e.g. email correspondences with customers or potential customers, contracts, quotations and invoices)
  • Explain why you expand your business in Hong Kong
  • Provide other supporting documents that are required by the bank (e.g. personal bank statements and/or income proof of the shareholders for proving the source of fund/wealth)
  • Be transparent and try to answer the questions raised by the bank

If the application is going smoothly, face-to-face appointment will be arranged by the bank to meet with the company’s director(s) and also shareholder(s) in some cases. The following documents would be needed:

  • Corporate documents of the company (e.g. Certificate of Incorporation, Business Registration Certificate, Article of Association and Form NNC1)
  • Corporate documents of the corporate director and corporate shareholder of the company
  • Certified true copies of the passports of individual directors and individual shareholders
  • Certified true copies of the residential address proofs of individual directors and individual shareholders

All in all, the more convincing you can present your case to the bank that you are doing serious business in Hong Kong, the higher the chance to open a corporate bank account here.

If you wish to discuss/share your proposal with us, please do not hesitate to leave your enquiry at contact@orbis-alliance.com. We will get back to you very shortly.