Opening a bank account in Estonian Bank

[claphill]

Do you have any recent experiences with opening a bank account for
1. local comapnies
2. Estonian branches of foreign companies
3. foreign companies
in Estonian banks ? Should the business ties be evidenced or are there any special requirements to be met for successful opening?

If not Estonian, then what banks would you recommend?

 

[lrotter]

Big connection is needed to be shown.
Only registration in Estonia is not enough now, you need to show employees/customers/suppliers with big volumes in Estonia.

If you want to try - better address agent, will save your time and nerve.
Good options may be for opening for Russian companies.

Address something like Wirecard, they can accept almost every jurisdiction.

 

[claphill]

EMI might be considered but only as the supporting solution for banking services. It is rather the matter of keeping the funds with the banking instituition which are covered by deposit guarantee scheme

 

[Sols]

Let's look at the banks in Estonia.

BIGBANK: mostly focused on home loans and term deposits.
LHV: fintech friendly and involved in crypto/blockchain projects. That doesn't mean they'll take anything.
Luminor: the baby of Nordea (Finnish low-risk bank) and DNB (Norwegian low-risk bank).
Coop Pank: low risk appetite. Unlikely to take on foreign companies.
SEB: Swedish banking giant. Low risk appetite. Great to work with if you run a local business. Normally won't touch you unless you have a local company with local operations.
Swedbank: Swedish banking giant with a big money laundering scandal, recently fired their CEO. Low risk appetite.
TBB: risk appetite tends to swing a lot from my (limited) experience but strong preference for local companies with local presence. Struggling with some correspondence accounts.

Foreign companies with no business connections to Estonia or, at the very least, Baltics aren't as welcome as they were a few years ago. Exceptions are made for good business cases. But the Swedish banks will probably just refer you to Sweden, where the more complex compliance decisions are made.

 

[Martin Everson]

If not Estonian, then what banks would you recommend?

Do you really need an Estonian bank account? Think carefully if there is a solid reason for needing a local account in Estonia. IBAN discrimination is against EU law remember so no request in any EU for local IBAN can be considered lawful.