A bank compliance officer will regard each company structure with an anti-avoidance perspective thus will have the natural tendency to reject bank account opening for company using nominee services.

1. Hong Kong Tax Free
Hong Kong & Offshore Companies Registration with Bank Account Openings
The New Challenge:
Bank Account opening for company using
Nominee Services
Overseas bank account opening is becoming more difficult as in front of tax pressure banks
are revising their strategies, de-risking is becoming the new norm and bank account
rejections or terminations are numerous.
A bank compliance officer will regard each company structure with an anti-avoidance
perspective thus will have the natural tendency to reject bank account opening for
company using nominee services.
In Hong Kong most of the banks are now refusing structures using nominees following in
this the implicit recommendations of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, they would
probably argue that the compliance cost are too high and this could be discussed further.
In other jurisdictions the prohibition against companies using directors and shareholders
services in also becoming the norm, the compliance department being invested somewhere
of too much power while facing too low manpower to conduct undiscriminating compliance
work.
Basically as nominee services are only protecting privacy and business confidentiality while
the beneficial owners are disclosed to the bank targeting companies using such services is
wrong on a long term perspective.
Request for privacy and business confidentiality shouldn’t be considered as indication for
possible tax evasion and money laundering activities, the transparency is also offering to
criminals endless lists of potential victims.
Bank account opening for company using Nominee Services, good practices:
1. Don’t use nominee directors or nominee shareholders for companies which are
already protectives, such as Seychelles companies with no public access to the
register of directors and shareholders.
2. Avoid low level nominee directors, a taxi driver could manage an IT company; select
a profile in line with the company activities.
3. Prepare the full compliance of the nominee director, keeping in mind that the
nominee notion is often not recognized, a director is ... a director … with all powers
and duties attached to the position.
4. Give bank signatory power to the director, a limited amount is often sufficient.

2. Hong Kong Tax Free
Hong Kong & Offshore Companies Registration with Bank Account Openings
5. Produce the nominee agreement and the declaration of trust, notarized or with a
stamp duty.
6. Use a corporate nominee shareholder as if the shareholder is an individual this could
trigger more questioning from the local tax authorities, plus in term of likelihood if
the nominee shareholder don’t benefit from the right wealth exposure this could
cause problems.
7. Explain the reasons behind the selection of nominee services to the bank
compliance.
Rejection or termination of bank account for company using Nominee Services is likely to
channel new clients to gray areas with more complex situations and a deliberate avoidance
of mandatory declaration of the ultimate beneficial owner true identity to the financial
institutions.
With changes of laws and regulations the company providers should work hands in hands
with the compliance officers, facilitating the on-boarding process is a key factor to insure
bank account opening for company using nominee services.
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