The issue
Since 2015, many non-residents of Estonia having Estonian companies have faced the fact that Estonian banks have started closing their bank accounts without explanation. At first, this applied to non-EU citizens, and then to all companies that were owned by non-Estonians and did not have customers from Estonia.
As it turned out later, it was related to money laundering scandals. Unfortunately, it is still almost impossible for non-residents of Estonia to open a bank account for an Estonian company in an Estonian bank.
How the issue is solved
This problem was solved almost immediately by the FinTech industry. Payment systems like PaySera and Holvi have started offering Estonian companies to open bank accounts through them. And these services have become popular, and even Estonian companies with local owners have started to open accounts not with classic banks, but with the Internet banks. Now there are dozens of companies on the market offering to open a European IBAN for an Estonian company.
Is it worth trying to open an account in an Estonian bank?
You can try to open an account in an Estonian bank in two cases:
- You are an IT company that provides IT services or sells SaaS IT products.
- You have clients who buy your services or goods from Estonia and they make up a significant portion of your income.
In all other cases, opening an account in an Estonian bank is pointless.
For opening an account, you should definitely come to Estonia and possibly more than once. It is not possible to open an account remotely.
If you think that you meet these criteria, we recommend contacting an LHV bank.
Where is the best place to open an account?
In our opinion, today it is better to open an account for an Estonian company with a non-resident owner in payment systems such as WISE, PaySera or Revolut.
In our experience, WISE is the most convenient, as it is the fastest way to open an account and the interface is fairly clear.