Having trouble getting a business bank account open in Hong Kong? Or other parts of the world?

You’re not alone.

I’m hearing it more and more from everyone. More and more rejection letters.

Have you been following international business trends over the years? Then you have seen quite a tightening up on new business account openings. Hong Kong is a financial center of the world, yet the past couple years has been getting so much more of a hassle to get an account opened.

As I have been working with so many clients with their bank account opening headaches. This sparked my interest to re-experience this tedious process for myself.

It is much more difficult than “back in the day”!

I spent 2 days visiting as many banks in Hong Kong as I could. There are so many banks in Hong Kong! I estimate there to be over 50, depending on your criteria for a bank – commercial or retail or investment. I was able to cover about 20 of them. That is – depending if you consider walking into a branch and getting an immediate rejection as a bank visit or not!

I’m sure depending on the day and the client services rep I talked to at the bank I would get different results. For this exercise, here is what I disclosed to the bank tellers and client account managers when I walked in:

I did this to represent most of the clients I am working with. Though the American nationality was an extra negative in this process. We’ll will dig going through these various banks below.

What have your own experiences been in applying for bank accounts in Hong Kong? Please note, this is for business (corporate) accounts, and not personal. I believe personal accounts are still easy and straightforward for you to get in HK, but didn’t attempt that in today’s post.

Now, in no particular order, let’s dig into each of the banks I went to:

HSBC SME centers are all over Hong Kong. I went with my friend Mike “The Greek” as he doesn’t currently have an HSBC account. We went to the Jordan branch on Nathan road without an appointment.

Entering the retail bank location on the ground floor, the greeter asked how to help us. She was friendly and when we said a business account, sent us to the SME center on the 18th floor.

The secretary greeted us and then had a small business banking client rep meet us in a conference room within about 5 minutes. He asked us to confirm it was a business account for a Hong Kong limited company. He also asked if it was for a new company or a company that was older than one year.

He then gave us a checklist, which I’ll type out here:

* True copy Certification of Incorporation

* CPA / lawyer / banker / notary public in a Financial Action Task Force (FATC) member comparable jurisdiction acceptable to HSBC or

* Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (HKICS) member, or

* HSBC branch officer

Recommended format: Certified must sign and date the copy document (printing his/her name clearly in capitals underneath) and clearly indicate his/her position on it. Certifier must state that it is a true copy of the original (or words to similar effect) and the number of pages to be recorded

Number of directors needed to form a quorum / beneficial owners to be present for the account opening.

* For the sample of the required documents please refer to the website

A. Company Registration Documents
1. Certificate of Incorporation (CI) and change of name (if applicable)
2. Valid Business Registration Certificate (BRC)
3. Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A) / Articles of association and any amending resolutions.
4. Latest notification of change of secretary and director (appointment/cessation) (form D2A/ND2A), return of allotments (form SC1/NSC1) and/or Instrument of Transfer, if applicable.
5. (For newly established company)
5a) Company Search report / company particulars search issued within 6 months and
5b) Incorporation form (NC1 /NNC1) or (NC1G/NNC1G) / Notification of First Secretary and Director (form D1) and
5c) Director / Shareholder / Beneficial owner declaration (DD),sample available upon request, issued within 6 months.
6) For company established over 1 year
6a) Company search report / company particulars search issued within 6 months and
6b) Latest Annual Return (form AR1/NAR1)

B. Documents Required from 2 Directors, All Authorized Signatories, All beneficial owners, and 2 key Controllers
– Identification document and nationality proof

C. Documents Required from 2 Directors, All Authorized Signatories, All beneficial owners, and 2 key Controllers
C1: Residential Address proof
C2: Permanent Address proof (if different from residential address)

D. Documents Required from 2 Directors, All Authorized Signatories, All beneficial owners, All key Controllers, and ALL direct appointees
D1: Full name, ID type, number, and date of birth.

E. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Documents
Applicable HSBC declaration form and/or IRS W form to establish your tax status under FATCA. For document templates and more information about FATCA, please refer to the HSBC website at www.faca.hsbc.com/en/emb/hongkong or IRS website at www.irs.gov/FATCA

F. Payments and Forms for Account Opening
F1. HKD check of 10,000 HKD for initial deposit, company search, and special company account opening charges, where applicable. (Please refer to the latest commercial tariff –)
F2. Mandate, account opening form, and signature cards

G. Additional Documents Required for Special Companies
G1. Corporate Shareholders
Ownership structure chart showing company name, % shareholding, the country of incorporation, the country of business address in each Intermediate Owner up to the Beneficial Owners of the company and specifying the issuance of bearer shares in the chain of ownership (including the company, all Intermediate Owners and Beneficial Owners), certified by director. Indicate if there are family members amount the Beneficial Owners and the family’s total collective % shareholding, if applicable.
G2. If Beneficial Owners in your Company is a Trust
Trust deed, identification proof and residential address proof, and identification proof of trustee.