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Question Best banking options (Malta/E-Commerce)

BtcBiz

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Jul 15, 2021
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Dear Sirs and Madams.

We have now successfully incorporated our company structure in Malta/Cyprus and are close to be ready for daily business.

Our operating fields include re-selling electronics through eBay/our own Web Store. As we only operate online ("E-Commerce") we are happy with the decision of relocating even though the setup and maintenance fees are quite hefty, but all in all this could be worth the hassle as we came from a high taxes country.

However, we have yet to find a banking solution for our needs. As we like to invest into cryptocurrencies multiple times a week/month (depending on the markets current situation), we currently can't get hands on a Maltese bank account as these banks seem to be very strict about not accepting ANY kind of transactions of such nature.

We have read many posts and heard about many experiences with European-based EMIs as well as Swiss (or jurisdictions located very near) Offshore solutions which are not cheap and therefore may not be worth for E-Commerce as we will high likely have many daily outgoing/incoming transfers.

So far we can think of 2 possible ways how this could turn out well. We hereby kindly ask you to have a look at this and share any experiences you may have had in regard. Your help is much appreciated!

1) Going with any bank, buying cryptocurrencies through OTC exchanges (such as Localbitcoins/Paxful). Therefore avoiding associations with cryptocurrencies at all, leaving us the choice to go with most banks located in Europe.

2) Finding a bank which is fine with outgoing transfers to exchanges (such as Binance/Coinbase). As these tend to be SUPER RARE and even banks which are advertising themselves as "crypto-friendly" don't even seem to run smoothly according to many user reviews, that is why we are struggling right now.

What do you think of choice number 1?

Do you have any recommendations as for number 2?

Thank you very much for your time and thoughts already!

Best regards
BtcBiz
 
  • Intergiro: Rejected our application
  • Wise (Transferwise): Reject Malta/Cyprus in general
  • Holvi: DE/AT companies only
  • Fidor: DE companies only
  • N26: No incorporated companies at all
  • bunq: DE/NL companies only + bad personal experiences
  • Monese: UK companies only
  • Monzo: UK residents only
  • Tide: UK companies only
  • Wirex: No companies + bad personal experiences
  • Neat: Asia only
  • Aspire: Asia only
  • Nuri (Bitwala): No companies at all
  • Lirium: Not available yet

  • Bank Frick: Application pending
  • SEBA: Application pending
  • Sygnum: Seem to not accept Malta/Cyprus, waiting for a reply
  • NexPay: Application pending
  • Verifo: Application pending
  • IBSettle: Application pending
  • Xapo: Application pending
  • MeDirect: Application pending
  • Simplex: Application pending
  • Revolut: I don't know...
  • Bankera: I don't know either...

Any similar banks which we could apply for?
 
are you sure about this, where did you read that on their website or did they told you so in some email comversation?


could be an option!

You could as well look into Intergiro, they may work well for you.
Hey mate, please have a closer look at our previous post. :)

> Intergiro was our top choice until they rejected us.
> Wise do not support Malta/Cyprus right now, I just checked it myself. When trying to register a MT/CY company, Wise is going to reject you.
> I don't know about Bankera. Haven't had any good experiences with them so far. Haven't heard of any neither.
 
All local banks including MeDirect will only consider your company if you have local substance: office and employee.

As for Malta based EMI, Finductive has been rock solid for me since more than 1 year.

Bank Frick you can forget, they are not interested. With banks like Bank Frick or UBS Swiss for Malta companies - yes, it is possible. If you have €5M invested on a personal level with them, they will open bank account for your Malta company without much troubles.

You can check Bank of Cyprus via introducer, I managed to open a bank account for Malta company with them last year.
 
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All local banks including MeDirect will only consider your company if you have local substance: office and employee.
We do have substance over here (unless home offices do not count as substance)!
As for Malta based EMI, Finductive has been rock solid for me since more than 1 year.
I haven't heard of Finductive yet, but I will defo check them out tomorrow and high likely going to apply!
Any similar banks you can recommend?
Bank Frick you can forget, they are not interested. With banks like Bank Frick or UBS Swiss for Malta companies - yes, it is possible. If you have €5M invested on a personal level with them, they will open bank account for your Malta company without much troubles.
Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg are not to consider at all?
You can check Bank of Cyprus via introducer, I managed to open a bank account for Malta company with them last year.
Uhhh... Haven't heard many good things about Cyprus yet, how long did it take you to open an account?
We also lack of an introducer!
 
Uhhh... Haven't heard many good things about Cyprus yet, how long did it take you to open an account?
We also lack of an introducer!
Around 3 months. Banking options for Malta companies are very limited unfortunately. If you have a local office, director, employee, then you can talk to local banks. But if your business is gaming related or crypto related, it will be extremely hard.
 
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We do have substance over here (unless home offices do not count as substance)!

I haven't heard of Finductive yet, but I will defo check them out tomorrow and high likely going to apply!
Any similar banks you can recommend?

Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg are not to consider at all?

Uhhh... Haven't heard many good things about Cyprus yet, how long did it take you to open an account?
We also lack of an introducer!
Bank of Cyprus would not accept crypto related funds, actually no Cyprus bank would. There are a couple of Cyprus EMIs that have declared themselves as crypto friendly.
 
  • Intergiro: Rejected our application
  • Wise (Transferwise): Reject Malta/Cyprus in general
  • Holvi: DE/AT companies only
  • Fidor: DE companies only
  • N26: No incorporated companies at all
  • bunq: DE/NL companies only + bad personal experiences
  • Monese: UK companies only
  • Monzo: UK residents only
  • Tide: UK companies only
  • Wirex: No companies + bad personal experiences
  • Neat: Asia only
  • Aspire: Asia only
  • Nuri (Bitwala): No companies at all
  • Lirium: Not available yet

  • Bank Frick: Application pending
  • SEBA: Application pending
  • Sygnum: Seem to not accept Malta/Cyprus, waiting for a reply
  • NexPay: Application pending
  • Verifo: Application pending
  • IBSettle: Application pending
  • Xapo: Application pending
  • MeDirect: Application pending
  • Simplex: Application pending
  • Revolut: I don't know...
  • Bankera: I don't know either...

Any similar banks which we could apply for?

I think Simplex doesn't offer business accounts, only Individual accounts and Partner accounts (e.g for exchanges).

Xapo has a waitlist right now for new clients.
 
I think Simplex doesn't offer business accounts, only Individual accounts and Partner accounts (e.g for exchanges).

Xapo has a waitlist right now for new clients.
Yeah Xapo and Lirium are not open for business yet.

Many of these EMIs don't even provide banking solutions anyways, it's just me randomly applying with all "banking solutions" I've read about.

Hoping to actually land a hit once. Just once.

So far all central European countries seem to be completely out of range, they either charge too much or don't even respond to us. So I guess we will have to focus on Malta or Lithuania.
 
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> I don't know about Bankera. Haven't had any good experiences with them so far. Haven't heard of any neither.
There is a remarkable amount of information about Bankera at this forum (IMO mostly positive but make your own conclusions). Search previous/older threads.
 
  • Currenxie: Accepted our application (Estland IBAN, but crypto-unfriendly)
  • SEBA: Rejected our application
  • Sygnum: Seem to reject Malta/Cyprus
  • Revolut: Reject Malta/Cyprus companies in general
  • Airwallex: UK only right now
  • Paymix: Highest fees on the list, most awkward onboarding process
  • Simplex: Payment processor, ain't no real EMI
  • Xapo: Not available yet

  • Bank Frick: Application pending
  • NexPay: Application pending
  • Verifo: Application pending
  • IBSettle: Application pending
  • Bilderlings: Application pending
  • Bankera: Application pending
  • Pervesk: Application pending
  • MeDirect: Application pending
  • Finductive: Application pending

  • Several Swiss banks didn't even reply or were completely out of our range (very high deposits, very high maintenance fees, very high transaction fees)
  • Same with Liechtenstein (and high likely Luxembourg too)
  • Maltese banks treat us with great suspicion even though we are located on the island and everything is legit on our end, most of them didn't even respond neither
  • According to the forum and our lawyer Cyprus is even worse, so we don't even try
  • Leaves us with no choice than hoping to find another 1-2 bank accounts in Lithuania / United Kingdom which are crypto-friendly

Can't recommend Malta so far, this island even has been grey-listed by the European Union as of last month.
 
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