Best suited bank for a Seychelle company?

[Chris426a]

I have a newly formed Seychelle IBC that I will use for consulting business within marketing for the IT/Tech space.
My next step is to find a bank or EMI that my clients can send money to as payment for the work.

I have already looked at VertoFX, PaxumBank and Migom Bank but the last two very bad reviews.

VerftoFX told me I could open an account so I did, afterwards I got this message:

Your Verto FX account is up and running and you are able to log in and use our services.
We are unable to provide a Verto GBP account as your business falls out of our risk appetite.
You will only be able to receive money from your client if this is being sent via the Verto platform.

So I really have no use for them..

Which bank or EMI would you guys recommend?

 

[Fred]

If you require GBP account then take a look at Bidlerlings.

If you are fine with just EUR and SEPA access then you have plenty of high risk EMI in Lithuania.

 

[Chris426a]

EUR or USD would be the best option for me as my client is in Europe. Do you know any specific EMI in Lithuania?

 

[Fred]

EUR or USD would be the best option for me as my client is in Europe. Do you know any specific EMI in Lithuania?

EUR with SEPA access you get from a lot of high riks EMI's in Lithuania and a few in UK but I would look more into Lithuania as you have more choice. It's pretty simple the EMI's with a pricing were you not accept with having a simple UK Ltd structure are targeting guys like you with a Seychelles IBS and that's reflecting in the prices.

USD you can forget - there are some EMI's like UK based DynaPay that more or less get USD done somehow but again with a Seychelles Company you are far away from there risk appetite.

With the mentioned Lithuania based EMI's you get best case scenario EUR SWIFT done under the EMI names - means shared IBAN details.

The onyl banks we see actually that supports this EUR SWIFT shared IBAN scheme for high risk EMI's are:

Rietumu Banka
Mano Bankas

And the question is how long things will be like this taking in consideration such news:

https://www.reuters.com/article/latvia-banking-idUSL5N2NZ54T
Beside of this you have some unicorns like Lithaunia based Wallter that provide SWIFT through HERMES Bank St. Lucia but then again only outgoing SWIFT - restricted and crazy expensive.

Looking at the Hong Kong EMI Sky gets you all the time Shared Accounts with DBS Hong Kong and in the beneficiary field you have to add the EMI name beside of your Company Name + all this HK EMI's only work with HK Company and BVI Companies - some with Caymans as well.

Back in the days - talking abot 2017/2018 there was TransferWise - known as Wise nowadays that opened for Seychelles/Belize IBC's with dedicated USD account details - Wise stopped more and more onboarding such companies in 2019 and since 2020 they completely stopped doing this.

However there is a real market around such companies with Wise account and sometimes there are even nominees in place so the solution everybody is looking for - however price tag of such a aged setup is around 5k$ if even available.

All in all I made this big explanation to mention you and everybody else that is reading this that you are very limited with a Seychelles IBC in 2021 and you have crazy shortcomings as well as crazy fees to get such a setup working.

All in all it's not worth it and you are better with spending 7k initially to get a Dubai Company with Dubai residence Visa done and gets you local UAE Banks access,0% tax, no public company register and no audit requirements if setup in the right way. Then you have reliable retail banking and you can transact USD/EUR under your company name around the world. The missing EUR SEPA you can then easily add with an EMI that just provides you with a local SEPA collecting account through LVH Bank Estonia for example.

 

[GPT]

ABC Bank in Mauritius. Find an introducer and if it is straightforward it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
https://www.abcbanking.mu

 

[erni]

does Wise accept Seychelles companies any longer?

 

[Fred]

does Wise accept Seychelles companies any longer?

No - they stopped inboarding them in 2019 - even worse if you apply and they reject you - they close down all your existing accounts with them as well.

There are some setups up and running with Seychelles and Belize IBC - but all the time I ask the people they claim they opened back in the days either 2018 or 2019 - so far have seen 1 Seychelles IBC opened 2018 and 1 Belize IBC opened in 2017 and 1 Belize IBC opened in 2018 - so in the very early stage of Transferwise - now Wise.

 

[sergeylim88]

any updates for seych ibc?
any banks except mauritius that will accept them?

 

[EuroKiss]

With so many problems for banking, which is the main purpose of a Seychelles IBC? I am looking at it for crypto business as related in other thread, but it implies a total Web3 structure (meaning crypto-crypto). I understand their IBC cannot be used for normal biz activities…

 

[GPT]

With so many problems for banking, which is the main purpose of a Seychelles IBC? I am looking at it for crypto business as related in other thread, but it implies a total Web3 structure (meaning crypto-crypto). I understand their IBC cannot be used for normal biz activities…

You can use a SC IBC for normal activities outside of crypto. The challenge is to find a bank account for your SC company.

Main reason for this is that they always claimed to only disclose ownership and other information after proper documented cases from foreign authorities. Reality is that it only takes an email and they open up everything. So much for confidentiality.

The other thing that works against SC for the last 5-ish years is that they were on all sorts of lists which made it difficult to do business with SC companies without being flagged by banks, authorities etc. This caused a lot of companies to flee. One of the main reasons for SC being on these lists had to do with SC service providers not keeping up to date records.

Right now the service providers are working on “file completion”. This will lead to a lot of shady activities via SC companies to move. After the finalization of that cleaning I personally think SC will regain their position in what they are good at; providing companies for plane and yacht registrations. Providing holding companies for receiving dividend distributions from Cyprus.

I don’t think SC will want to burn themselves on crypto related activities unless you are large and bring a substantial amount of regulated business.

 

[EuroKiss]

You can use a SC IBC for normal activities outside of crypto. The challenge is to find a bank account for your SC company.

Main reason for this is that they always claimed to only disclose ownership and other information after proper documented cases from foreign authorities. Reality is that it only takes an email and they open up everything. So much for confidentiality.

The other thing that works against SC for the last 5-ish years is that they were on all sorts of lists which made it difficult to do business with SC companies without being flagged by banks, authorities etc. This caused a lot of companies to flee. One of the main reasons for SC being on these lists had to do with SC service providers not keeping up to date records.

Right now the service providers are working on “file completion”. This will lead to a lot of shady activities via SC companies to move. After the finalization of that cleaning I personally think SC will regain their position in what they are good at; providing companies for plane and yacht registrations. Providing holding companies for receiving dividend distributions from Cyprus.

I don’t think SC will want to burn themselves on crypto related activities unless you are large and bring a substantial amount of regulated business.

Thanks a lot! Do you think the Seychelles IBC is a good structure for a holding company to hold stocks in other companies? How could anyway receive the capital gains of a stock sold if banking is such a difficult task?

 

[Mr Magoo]

You may be able to open an account for a SC IBC with one of the banks in the caribbean like Boslil or some Dominican bank like GBR or UIB in Curacao. I am getting rid of my BZ IBC with Wise account. These IBC simply dont work any more in 2021. Also note that Wise cant be used in connection with Interactivebrokers so be aware of the use of EMIs.

 

[GPT]

Thanks a lot! Do you think the Seychelles IBC is a good structure for a holding company to hold stocks in other companies? How could anyway receive the capital gains of a stock sold if banking is such a difficult task?

Right now I don’t think SC IBC is a nice solution. They first need to have their s**t sorted and re-establish themselves which I think they will do through private yacht and plane registrations. Perhaps in 5 years from now they become attractive again for working as holding companies for Cyprus holdings and or operational companies.

I wouldn’t recommend SC IBC as personal investment holding companies at the moment. Way too early after all the backlash.

 

[EuroKiss]

You may be able to open an account for a SC IBC with one of the banks in the caribbean like Boslil or some Dominican bank like GBR or UIB in Curacao. I am getting rid of my BZ IBC with Wise account. These IBC simply dont work any more in 2021. Also note that Wise cant be used in connection with Interactivebrokers so be aware of the use of EMIs.

Thanks for your insights! So for what I guess, such IBC are useless even for holding group purposes, am I right?

 

[Mr Magoo]

Using an IBC as a holding may work just fine, as long as you do not want to have a bank account linked to it. Anyways, the use of IBC's nowadays is not the way to go I think. The net is closing in on this kind of offshore structures. But it also depends where you are resident, do business etc. On a side note I experienced that you cant withdraw funds to ABC bank from Interactivebrokers. All 'n all i decided to move away from IBC's for trading since the net is closing in from all sides.

 

[EuroKiss]

Considering the idea of incorporating a holding group with just the objective of holding stocks and participation in other LLC and C-Corp and selling them in the future, which kind of corporate structure would you suggest? To give a context, I am EU passport holder but 100% resident in a mildly taxation Latam country - no ties with EU. Thanks!

 

[Mr Magoo]

if you hold stocks in an IBC, how do you want to ever sell them if you dont have a bank account for the IBC? I once considered an BZ or SC foundation that owns my other EU company. But long term thinking I decided to thrash that idea. If you are a EU passport holder in LATAM then consider holding stocks just in your name since LATAM countries are all close to banana republics anyway

 

[EuroKiss]

if you hold stocks in an IBC, how do you want to ever sell them if you dont have a bank account for the IBC? I once considered an BZ or SC foundation that owns my other EU company. But long term thinking I decided to thrash that idea. If you are a EU passport holder in LATAM then consider holding stocks just in your name since LATAM countries are all close to banana republics anyway

Not how things work in these “banana republics” but anyway…
Any valid suggestion from anyone?

 

[Marios]

I have a newly formed Seychelle IBC that I will use for consulting business within marketing for the IT/Tech space.
My next step is to find a bank or EMI that my clients can send money to as payment for the work.

I have already looked at VertoFX, PaxumBank and Migom Bank but the last two very bad reviews.

VerftoFX told me I could open an account so I did, afterwards I got this message:

Your Verto FX account is up and running and you are able to log in and use our services.
We are unable to provide a Verto GBP account as your business falls out of our risk appetite.
You will only be able to receive money from your client if this is being sent via the Verto platform.

So I really have no use for them..

Which bank or EMI would you guys recommend?

Few solutions exists with Mauritius banks and other non-EU based banks. However, if you have substance (offices and employees) there is high probability that a European EMI would consider opening and offering you dedicated IBAN with segregated account as well. Do you have substance?

 

[Marios]

I have St Vincent company and experience same issue. By substance what do you mean exactly? Would a rental agreement suffice? Thanks

Please note that not all offshore jurisdictions are treated the same by the Financial Institutions.
Substance in its broader meaning implies that the company is not shell, and thus it has:
Website
Renting/having actual offices in the country of incorporation
Has employee(s) other than the Director
Prepares Audited Financial Statements.
Now each European Financial Institution (this is mainly a request from European banks/EMIs/PSPs etc.) determines which of the above if not all all, are required as per their customer acceptance policy, provided that the specific offshore jurisdiction can be considered for them in the first place.
The most important of those is the rental agreement in the country of incorporation which must have a reasonable monthly fee. Alternatively in some instances a utility bill on the name of the company could be accepted as well, such as telephone land line. As for the employees this is also very important especially for established businesses. They can be full-time or even part-time. As for the audited financial statements some banks can also accept management accounts understanding that preparing audited accounts is not mandatory in the country of incorporation.
I hope the above sheds some light to the situation.