Open a corporate account in a Puerto Rican bank remotely – from 3999 Euros

If you want to acquire a corporate bank account in a secure foreign jurisdiction, Puerto Rico will be a very good choice. For banking purposes, the country is part of the United States of America. Thus, you will have a bank account in the national state with the largest economy in the world.

A corporate account in a secure foreign bank

The bank that we are bringing to your attention will be a perfect fit for the companies that trade in physical goods or provide certain types of services including IT services.

Stationed in Puerto Rico, the bank is de facto a U.S. bank as it has its own account with the Federal Reserve. This makes it fully integrated into the American financial system.

There is a possibility to open an account remotely with this bank. However, if you wish, you can visit the head office in San Juan, Puerto Rico or the branch offices in New York, London, Tel-Aviv, or Kiev.

It is important to note that the bank does not deal with cryptocurrencies and does not accept the moneys from stock exchanges. If you would like to open an account for a financial organization, your case will require separate consideration.

You can open an account with this bank in USD, EUR, or GBP. For Euro accounts, a unique IBAN can be obtained. There are no limits for daily transactions. The transactions go via SWIFT, Fedwire, or SEPA.

The bank intends to issue debit cards in the near future.

It has reliable expertise especially in trade company support and vast experience in issuing Letters of Credit of different kinds.

The bank also works with a large number of service companies and IT projects in particular.

Things to know about account opening in the Puerto Rican bank

The bank is prepared to open corporate accounts for offshore companies.

A PEP (Publically Exposed Person) can apply for opening an account with this bank. However, each such applicant will be considered individually. The same goes for applicants with ‘negative news’.

As far as bearer share companies are concerned, the bank will not service those. If your company is a bearer share one, you have to make amendments to your Operating Agreement before you can apply to this bank for account opening.

When applying for their services, you will have to submit copies of the required documents rather than send originals to the bank via a courier service. There might be exceptions to this general rule though.

All the documents you submit should be either in English or in Spanish. If the application documents have to be translated in one of these languages, the translations need to be notarized/ apostilled/ certified.

Even though accounts can be opened remotely with this bank, the Compliance Department may request a SKYPE video call with the applicant.

If all of the documents that you submit are in good order, the corporate account will be opened within three to ten business days with this bank.

Country restrictions

As this is effectively a U.S. bank, it has to comply with the U.S. Government regulations. Neither personal nor corporate accounts will be opened for residents of the countries listed below. Besides, no transactions will made to, or accepted from, these destinations:

Business areas that the bank considers high-risk

The bank administration considers the following business areas high-risk industries:

• Monetary trading;
• Credit card issuance;
• Credit repair;
• Dating services;
• Debt consolidation;
• Financial services;
• Online marketing;
• Quick credits;
• Tracking equipment manufacture and sales;
• Telemarketing;
• Tobacco;
• Travel clubs.

Companies dealing in these areas will be denied service at the bank automatically. However, the list of high-risk business areas is subject to change.

The costs of the bank services

The bank charges a fee for corporate account opening. The amount of the fee will depend on several factors such as the company home jurisdiction (onshore/ offshore), the number of the beneficiaries and their countries of origin, the industry risk rating, and so on.

The account opening fee starts at US$ 2,000 but the bank officers will be able to inform you about the ultimate amount to pay only after they inspect your application documents.

The banks accepts ACH payments. Its correspondent bank is Bank of America and soon the Central Bank of America will become one. All the fees and tariffs are settled with each client individually.

The commission for incoming payments will also depend on several factors. Usually it is between 0.6% and 2.5% of the transaction.

The base commission for the outgoing payments is US$ 60.

Documents to be supplied when opening a corporate account in the Puerto Rican bank

Below please find the list of documents required to open a corporate account with this Puerto Rican bank. Please remember that all documents should be in English or Spanish. If original documents are translated into one of these languages, a notarized/ certified translation shall be supplied together with a copy of the document originals.

The Corporation shall submit the following documents:
Corporate Account Application Form (to be provided to the applicant by the bank).
W-8 BEN-E and W-8 EXP or W-8 IMY and W-9 forms or as applicable (to be provided by the bank).
Corporate Resolution for Account Opening and Designation of Signatories for the Account.
Certificate of Company Incorporation.
Articles of Incorporation, Memorandum, By-Laws, Partnership Agreement, or Operation Agreement, as applicable.
Certificate of Good Standing.
Shareholder Registry with percentage of ownership or Document confirming ownership if the applicant is a single company owner.
Verification of Source of Funds (all documents shall not be older than three months and they have to show the balance):
Bank Statement.
Annual Statement.
Loan agreement.
Rent agreement (if the company acts as the proprietor).
Most Up-to-date Financial Statements.
Proof of Business Address (a PO Box is not acceptable) in the name of the corporation and not an individual: a utility bill, a bank statement, a tax document or correspondence from a government agency. Document shall also not be older than three months.

Each Director, Authorized Representative, Officer, Beneficial Owner or Controlling Person shall submit the following documents:
A copy of a valid passport. If the passport not available, please provide two government issued ID’s. (For example, a Driver’s License, a National ID card or any other official identification document.)
Proof of Residence Address (a PO Box is not acceptable) in the name of the individual: a utility bill, a bank statement, a tax document or correspondence from a government agency. Document shall not be older than three months.
W-8 BEN, W-8 ECI, or W-9 forms as applicable (to be provided to the applicant by the bank).  

If the Corporation is owned by another Corporation (a Parent Company), for each Corporation in the holding structure the following documents shall be provided:
Certificate of Incorporation.
Certificate of Good Standing.
Shareholder Registry with percentage of ownership.
Proof of Business Address (a PO Box is not acceptable) in the name of the company and not an individual: a utility bill, a bank statement, a tax document or correspondence from a government agency. All the document shall not be older than three months.

If the Parent Corporation will serve as a source of funds, the following documents shall be provided:
Verification of Source of Funds (all documents shall not be older than three months and they have to show the balance):
Bank Statement.
Annual Statement.
Loan agreement.
Rent agreement (if the company is the proprietor).
Latest Financial Statements.

Please bear in mind that the bank may require some additional documents in the course of the account opening process.

What you should do to open an account with the Puerto Rican bank

Setting up a corporate bank account in Puerto Rico, you will be availing yourself of all the exiting opportunities that the U.S. banking system offers. At the same time, Puerto Rico is only associated with the United States but it is not part of the USA de jure and besides, the living standards in this country are generally lower. Consequently, the costs of establishing and maintaining a bank account in Puerto Rico are also lower than those in the mainland USA. This is really a good opportunity to use.

If you are interested, please request our services. What are we going to do for you? That is, what will you be paying for?

First, we have the application and other bank forms that you will need to fill out because we work directly with this Puerto Rican bank. Second, we will meticulously inspect all the required documents that you will send to us. You have to realize that banks can be very, very capricious about what information is presented in the forms and how it is presented. Our vast experience in helping people open offshore bank accounts will provide for the most ‘correct’ completion of the forms. We are not going to send to the bank simply the papers you will send to us. Rather, we will check everything carefully before contacting the bank. In this connection, please expect us to ask you for some additions and/ or clarifications. With our help, you will have the forms filled out the way the bank wants to see them filled out. Finally, we will acquire a pre-approval of your application from the bank.

We cannot make any promises on behalf of the bank administration, however. Even if the application for bank account opening has been pre-approved, it does not guarantee that the account will be opened when it comes to the final decision. However, we will do everything we can in order to maximize your chances to set up a corporate bank account in Puerto Rico.

Please write to us to [email protected] and place an assistance request. If you hire us, you will have to cover the cost of our services. You can use any payment method that you prefer. We accept all major currencies and even Bitcoins. If you would like to ask us anything before ordering our services, we will be happy to answer all your questions. We can help you make your life a little better.