The Company Takes a Week, the Bank Account Takes Months

The company takes a week; the bank account can take months. For companies with foreign shareholders this is the most common point of failure after formation, and the cause is usually not a missing document. It is which category the bank has placed you in.

Three mechanisms operate at once. The first is the expectation of physical presence for a non-resident shareholder: many banks want the shareholder or an authorised signatory at the branch, and the expectation varies from bank to bank. The second is identifying the ultimate beneficial owner: where the ownership chain runs through several countries, preparing the file can take weeks rather than days. The third is how the incoming transfer is classified.

The third is the one that surprises people most. A transfer arriving from abroad, if its description is not precise, can be recorded as a loan rather than as capital. The difference is not merely a bookkeeping entry: capital and debt differ in tax outcome, in repayment regime and in the shareholder's position. A single word in the SWIFT description can turn into a position that has to be corrected months later.

The practical consequence is this: the banking process is not a formality that follows formation. It is work to be planned alongside formation. Decide in advance which bank, with which documents, in which order, and with what description the money will be sent, and the process takes days instead of weeks. The articles below open up each of the three mechanisms and the preparation file.