Hey all,
as the title states I’m trying to open up a business account for a freshly incorparated private limited company (22nd March 2022). The German company I work for wants to expand it’s business to the UK.
The problem I run into is that our directors don’t have residency in the UK (Japan+Germany) but we urgently need a bank account to do business/pay bills/direct debits.
Turnover is expected to be around GBP 1million.
Do you guys have any idea, where to go from here? Or is it simply not possible?
Thanks for helping a desperate German accountant.
4 comments
I’d suggest contacting a British accountant.
Also r/legaladvice might give you better answers on Reddit.
You will find this extremely difficult. One option is to try one of the challengers like Revolut.
Have you contacted the business teams at any of the high street banks? They aren’t quick at opening accounts but I doubt you’ll find a challenger bank that works in your circumstances as they rely on being able to verify all information with companies house and UK electoral rolls so can’t cope with foreign persons being involved in the structures (or at least they couldn’t when I was looking last year).
Contact your local Handelsbanken office. They do things differently and the decisions are made at the office by the managers rather than at head office or a computer. [https://www.handelsbanken.co.uk/en/](https://www.handelsbanken.co.uk/en/)
I find it so refreshing that I can ring up our bank and get my number recognised by my businesses manager and greeted immediately by my first name. They have supported the development of the our business when our previous banker of 15 years had a blankets ‘no investment in construction’ policy.