EU bank account for UAE company

[European]

Hi all,
I am looking for options to open a bank account in the EU for a company based in a free zone in UAE.
I understand Wise does not do this.
Any recommendations?
Thank you

 

[ilke]

Paysera, Bankera, Currenxie do the job for this purpose.

 

[Forester]

Paysera, Bankera, Currenxie do the job for this purpose.

I'll add Verifo to the list, saying that Bankera is really the last resort IMO (I do not them consider neither good nor reliable).

Then I'll make a note that you are probably presuming that @European asks actually for the SEPA account – Currenxie is HK, not EU and they give you a SEPA account with Citi UK (I know that you, @ilke, are aware of this ). If it is really so (I have no clue) then I would recommend checking Interpolitan Money and Statrys, too. (I am not sure if the latter are currently able to offer SEPA, though.)

 

[ilke]

I'll add Verifo to the list, saying that Bankera is really the last resort IMO (I do not them consider neither good nor reliable).

Then I'll make a note that you are probably presuming that @European asks actually for the SEPA account – Currenxie is HK, not EU and they give you a SEPA account with Citi UK (I know that you, @ilke, are aware of this ). If it is really so (I have no clue) then I would recommend checking Interpolitan Money and Statrys, too. (I am not sure if the latter are currently able to offer SEPA, though.)

I don't see any reason to open an account solely for the reason that it would be European - I assumed it is to have an IBAN with EUR SEPA support - which Currenxie does provide with the UK Citi as you said.

I don't have that awful of an experience with Bankera - but there are a lot of complaints on the forum - so who knows?

We can also add Interpolitan, PayDo and Payset if we are looking towards SEPA with an IBAN in an EU country, although they have a larger risk appetite and with that higher pricing structures as well. And there are more UK EMIs without EU IBANs that can also work if the need is not for EU but just SEPA.

 

[Zikki]

Currenxie is available without a hassle, basic but reliable service. It doesn't provide a card though on your euro account and by being backed by UK bank sometimes fees are very unreliable to send money back to uae.
Paysera is an option as well even if sometimes they ask you for all your paperwork again for no understandable reason while freezing your account for week.
They offer card but their third party was and is unreliable (i e. PayPal or recurrent payment fail regularly and they were hacked a while back)
Paysera also had issue to send money to UAE for a long time as they didn't supported aed nor usd/euro to UAE bank account. Seems solved by now and quite fast even though the fees to do so are quite high if it's a frequent requirement (35e)

They are both useful if the purpose is to have a bank connected to the sepa network or European payment platform

If the requirement is just to have account supporting EUr without being exchanged to aed, most UAE banks offer Currency account, usd all the time, sometimes eur but they may be a pain to open as requirements are madness.. However WIO is easy to open and support eur aed or usd. You only have savings interests on usd and aed but the exchange rate of you use it is not the lowest (révolut) but far from the highest.

Hope it helps.


Also, something that popped up during the audit, Paysera doesn't have a bank confirmation letter that is an audited requirement... But may be replaced by a signed and stamped bank statement at the end of your fiscal year for a fee. Wio and currenxie offer confirmation letter for free directly from their app

 

[European]

Thanks all very much
Ideally it would be something like Wise, with a SEPA account in EUR and also support for other currencies (at least USD is necessary, other currencies are nice-to-have). Being based in Europe is secondary, unless there are disadvantages, higher fees, etc., associated with this (not based vs not based)

 

[Forester]

Thanks all very much

You are welcome.

Ideally it would be something like Wise,

No, I do not wish you to enjoy something like Wise (Look e.g. here If Wise is going to close accounts and is not the best, how diversify the money? – I guess that my general attitude to Wise/Revolut is quite known at forum.)

with a SEPA account in EUR and also support for other currencies (at least USD is necessary, other currencies are nice-to-have). Being based in Europe is secondary, unless there are disadvantages, higher fees, etc., associated with this (not based vs not based)

In such a case, you have some valid advices above, I think...