Euro bank account for UAE company

[SimpleGuy]

Good evening,

Can someone recommend me a bank (not an EMI) in Europe that opens euro bank card accounts for a company based in the UAE?

Best,

 

[Clank]

None, why not use an EMI to get SEPA payments and later transfer to UAE bank?

 

[bigdaddyleon]

A business partner of mine uses the Sparkasse(Germany) for her Freezone Company, possibly because she was already a customer with her German company before.

 

[Fred]

We use Citibank UK for EUR SEPA - earlier LHV Bank but they stopped to support basically to work with all Countries with neutral position about the current Russia/Ukraine conflict.

I see Raifeisenbank International Austria is used as well as Landesbank Liechtenstein but I guess both have high requirements.

Banking Circle is widely used from EMI's with several IBAN's across Europe - could be some middle way for you.

 

[bigdaddyleon]

I see Raifeisenbank International Austria is used as well as Landesbank Liechtenstein but I guess both have high requirements.

I had already inquired with Raifeisenbank International Austria last year, the requirements are very high.

English version:
Dear Mr. //,

thank you for your interest in RBI and your message to Mr. Rath regarding an account relationship with RBI AG.

Our company sees itself as a partner of the top 1000 companies in Austria and for international groups with an annual turnover of approx. 1 billion or more.

Even for these companies we do not offer pure payment transaction accounts, but require extensive business opportunities for a cooperation.

We therefore regret to inform you that your request is not covered by our business policy.

All the best to you and kind regards from Vienna,

Marija Vucerakovic

Corporate Customers

Raiffeisen Bank International AG | Member of RBI Group | Am Stadtpark 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria | [email protected] | Willkommen bei der besten Bank in Österreich und Zentral- und Osteuropa*

Please consider the environment before printing. / Please consider the environment before printing.

 

[SimpleGuy]

None, why not use an EMI to get SEPA payments and later transfer to UAE bank?

We can cash in the UAE, and also spend with our UAE card but the problem is the fees.

Stripe 3% + 1% conversion fee, and when spending 3% to convert back. That's almost 7%.

That's why we'd like a bank with a European IBAN to have a Stripe fee of just 1.4%, and no conversion fees on spend.

I'm not against EMI but I don't believe any provide maps.

We use Citibank UK for EUR SEPA - earlier LHV Bank but they stopped to support basically to work with all Countries with neutral position about the current Russia/Ukraine conflict.

I see Raifeisenbank International Austria is used as well as Landesbank Liechtenstein but I guess both have high requirements.

Banking Circle is widely used from EMI's with several IBAN's across Europe - could be some middle way for you.

What are the requirements for Citibank UK and LHV? Do they provide credit cards?

 

[JimBeam]

We used to have CIM Bank (Switzerland) account for our UAE FZ company.

At the time they told us they only open bank accounts to FZ companies in Dubai (they won't take Ajman, RAK etc).

We had to deposit $10k so they will even review our application.
If we got approved the money would be deposited into the account otherwise they would return it back.
So they did open the account (and deposited these 10k) and we used it for couple of years, but then we closed it as we no longer needed it anymore.

Was working fine but it was pricy.

 

[Fred]

We used to have CIM Bank (Switzerland) account for our UAE FZ company.

At the time they told us they only open bank accounts to FZ companies in Dubai (they won't take Ajman, RAK etc).

We had to deposit $10k so they will even review our application.
If we got approved the money would be deposited into the account otherwise they would return it back.
So they did open the account (and deposited these 10k) and we used it for couple of years, but then we closed it as we no longer needed it anymore.

Was working fine but it was pricy.

Your Account Opening Experience needs to be prior 2020.

They introduced 2020 new Substance Requirements with Residence Director and Office - we did achieve this for every client and still during 2021 they said even for some jurisdictions like Dubai this is no longer enough.

So with other words - they stopped opening Business BanK Accounts for Dubai Companies in 2021.

Personal Accounts seems to be still working as Dubai Resident but almost doesn't make any economy sense working for Personal Account with there Price Model - can be seen as a High Risk EMI charging you % starting certain amount.

 

[JimBeam]

We got the account open at Nov or Dec 2020.