Bank Account Openings

Singapore has one of the top-ranking countries in World Bank’s rankings as the best place to do business, which should come as no surprise, as one of Singapore’s main ambitions is to become the key financial services hub in the Asia Pacific region.

Currently, there are 111 commercial banks in Singapore, 4.5% of which are local banks while the remaining 95.5% are foreign banks. Ideally, if you are situated overseas, or the headquarters of your company is situated overseas, it would make sense to approach the bank that your company is already working closely with. However, certain foreign banks may only offer limited bank facilities and services in Singapore, so it may be a good idea to consider a local bank as well.

Naturally, to grant your local employees easy access to bank facilities such as commercial corporate cards, debit cards or internet banking services, local banks would be the ideal choice, as they have ATMs and branches all over the island. Moreover, the credit facilities of local banks are widely accepted at various merchants.

 

There are four local banks in Singapore, namely:

• Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (otherwise known as OCBC)
• Bank of Singapore (part of OCBC)
• DBS Bank Limited (merged with POSB, known as DBS)
• United Overseas Bank (otherwise known as UOB)

Of the four, DBS, OCBC and UOB have the strongest local presence and provide corporate banking facilities. Local banks may also be able to react more quickly to your needs, as they have larger offices and more employees in Singapore.

However, if you are situated overseas where there is a significant time difference from Singapore, you may need to check if your chosen bank offers round-the-clock service so that you can contact the bank at your convenience.

It should be noted that not all foreign banks in Singapore are full-service banks, i.e. there may be restrictions in terms of the financial services that they can offer as permitted by the Banking Act. Foreign banks are also restricted in terms of the number of branches and ATMs that they can have in Singapore.

In the event that you have no preference regarding which bank your company wishes to open a corporate bank account with, do consult a professional corporate service firm, who should have contacts with local bank officers and can easily assist you in the process of completing all the necessary paperwork and arrange for a bank officer to personally assist you with the opening of a corporate bank account.

 

Is it Easy to Open a Corporate Bank Account?

While it is extremely easy to incorporate and get your business up and running in Singapore, the enhanced measures recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) with regards to improving the transparency of ownership of legal persons and arrangements has resulted in banks and financial institutions tightening their controls and increasing the amount of paperwork required before bank accounts can be opened.

Given that a corporate bank account is registered in a company’s name and not that of its ultimate beneficial owner (“UBO”), banks now require the company to reveal its UBO and will perform due diligence on the UBO as well. As Singapore is a member of FATF, financial institutions in Singapore are obliged to pay special attention to persons and companies from the named jurisdictions as published by FATF in its quarterly public statements. In public statement dated 24 October 2014, FATF identified the following high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions:

• Iran
• Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
• Algeria
• Ecuador
• Indonesia
• Myanmar

BANK ACCOUNT OPENING REQUIREMENTS

For most banks, the basic documentation required to open a bank account would comprise the following:

• Application Form
• Directors’ Resolution in Writing to approve the Opening of the Bank Account and its Certified Extract
• Certified True Copy of the Certificate Confirming Incorporation of Company (“Certificate”)
• Certified True Copy of the Official Company Register (known also as the Business Profile) to evidence the current directors and its shareholders
• Certified True Copy of the Company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association
• NRIC / Passport Copies of the proposed bank signatories
• Minimum Deposit