I need to give a bankaccount to my company which is registered oversea. I’m resident in Taiwan. Which bank offers the most competitive account and the best management tools? Do they offer USD debit card associated to the account to spend under the company name?
You will first need to register a representative office in Taiwan for your company before you can get a fully operational bank account in the company’s name. They tend to be stingy issuing debit cards for companies, even for USD. Mainly it’s online transactions and bank book.
Couple of things:
If your company is registered in the US, do not try to open a bank account in Taiwan. They just won’t do it.
Taiwan banks have become much more strict recently, due to the fines issued by the US government related to money laundering. Regardless of where your company is registered, you might need to proof that your overseas company actually does business in Taiwan and/or need to have guanxi at the bank. While it is possible to do this, opening a rep office as @rooftopclown mentioned would make this process much easier.
Hi,
I have it already the Rep office. My company is not registered in the US so I think it’s fine.
Throught the rep office I cannot do business in taiwan but I need the bank account to make some expenses under the company name.
What is the bank that will open OBU easily? I tried megabank, ctbc, Shanghai commercial and the people there are really diffident. They don’t understand they look at you like you are a person to send away. I really have all the documents they even made up the story I need to look for a branch closer to my office even if the bank is maybe 5 minutes driving. Any suggestion?
You mean they did not want to open a bank account for a Taiwanese rep office? So weird.
I opened it with Mega back in the day (2013), they had to call their HQ to check what a rep office was, but otherwise it went smoothly. They refused to give me a Visa debit card for it though.
The rep office itself does not pay tax, since you can not do business. Can you book the expenses in the accounts of the overseas company?
Hi,
yes of course the company abroad is the mother company so everything goes under the name of that company. I can keep accounting there for all the expenses and all the invoices.
Some banks offer a DBU account but I’m not interested because my company is abroad.
It seems like you have all the necessary documents and things in place, but now your problem is to find bank personnel willing to go through the channels to open up an account for you. I’m not sure what the exact process is, but I know opening up a personal bank account or credit card with an ARC is a lot of extra unnecessary paperwork and steps than having a local ID.
What I suggest is working the guan xi. Ask around your employees, friends, family friends to see if anyone works in a bank that’s willing to take on the extra work.
I think you got really the point. It’s not about the papers, it’s really about the person you find. Some people in the bank are totally unwilling and see this as something extraordinary. They basically want me to go away. It’s like a problem for them for my perception.
Some other banks maybe try to figure out what they can do, they ask questions but the farest I went was to have a form for a DBU which just will make them valutate if I can open it.
I understand this and I’m pretty confident if I go forward I’ll get a DBU but it’s not what I’m interesting. My company is abroad so I need an OBU also for accounting reason of my company.
Which branch can I try? Where are there people that know what they are doing and it’s not the common 50 years old lady which works for the bank since 30 years and she just deals with some money exchange and some basic domestic transferts???
Have you tried Cathay United?
I opened up a regular checking/savings account and was automatically given a separate account for foreign currency. I have no clue if that has anything to do with your OBU account, but I didn’t see it mentioned above. Worth a shot?
OBU account is linked to the company. I have personal account in multicurrency of course. I can deposit USD or any other foreign currency there and than convert it into Twd. I think it’s pretty straightforward I had no problem with Citibank I’m sure almost every bank would grant me a personal account.
If you have a contact at the bank you opened up your personal account, why not go there?
Well maybe I could try this is a good idea.
I wanted to keep the accounts separate and also because I think citibank is not that super good.
Did you ever find a bank to open a OBU with?
No. After I while I gave up!