Offshore Business Accounts in Hong Kong
If you were not a U.S. citizen and were given the choice between starting a Hong Kong or Singapore company, which would be your first choice and why? Also, where would you do the business banking?
Most people would choose Hong Kong because the costs of incorporating and the annual costs are lower. One can bank at HSBC and have international PayPal account.
For opening offshore business accounts HSBC is somewhat cumbersome, expensive and a pain in the butt. Anonymity is the reason why nominees are popular since director and shareholder information is public. A nominee does not have access to the bank account for many reasons but foremost is that banks always make it a policy of confirming any requested changes made by a non-signatory who may happen to be a corporate officer with the existing account signatory who is the real customer of the bank.
Yes, it is possible to open the account without traveling there and nominees are not obligatory. The bank account opening paperwork must be signed in front of any HSBC officer at any branch in the world and the officer will be required to authenticate your passport copy, driver license and utility bill. This is how the personal presence requirement is waived.
If you use an offshore service provider you might not have to go to Hong Kong. Many have formed a HK Corp with a multi-currency account (USD, Euro’s, HK$, CHD etc) – without actually going to Hong Kong. They use a CPA firm based in HK and the total cost was about $800 including government fees, not including the initial bank deposit. The process was efficient as the forms were sent via email attachments and took about 3 weeks. I then received the Corp Kit, Seal, etc via courier.
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