A bank account for your Cyprus company.

The bank application is the part of a set-up with the most waiting in it, so it starts early.

• A new company waiting for its first payment. You need an account in the company's name soon, which usually means an EMI first.
• A business paid across borders. Consultants and online shops with clients in several countries, who need multi-currency accounts, local collection details and cards.
• A company that needs a Cyprus bank. A counterparty requires it, or the route does: the Business Facilitation Unit investment can be a deposit in the company's bank account.
• A founder who has been refused before. Applications fail more often for an incomplete or inconsistent file than for the business itself. The file is rebuilt to the provider's own checklist.

An electronic money institution (EMI) is a licensed payment provider that holds client money, issues IBANs and cards and makes transfers, without being a bank. Most Cyprus companies today start with an EMI, add a bank later if the business needs one, or run on both.

The same things, whether bank or EMI: a clear description of the business, the people behind it, where the money comes from and where it goes.

• The beneficial owners and directors: identity, address, background, source of wealth.
• The business: what it sells, to whom, in which countries, with evidence such as contracts, invoices, a website or a business plan.
• Source of funds for the opening deposit and the expected monthly flows.
• Substance: the office, the resident director where there is one, the accountant, the registrations.
• The documents: the incorporation certificates, the Memorandum and Articles, the UBO extract, the tax number.

Applications are refused more often for an incomplete or inconsistent file than for the business itself.

We prepare the file to the provider's own checklist, check every document against it, write the business description with you, book the meetings and sit through the onboarding questions with you where the provider allows it. If a provider asks for more, we handle the follow-up. You sign; the decision is the provider's.

Substance is what makes a company a real Cyprus business rather than a registration: management and control exercised from Cyprus, an office where the business needs one, a Cyprus-resident director where that is required, accounting records kept here, a bank or EMI account in the company's name and employees where the work is done here. Banks ask about it, and so do tax authorities abroad. We tell you what a given set-up needs before you commit to it.

The exact list depends on the provider and your case and is sent to you at step 2, "We ask you what we need". Banks and EMIs usually ask for these.

• Identity and address for each beneficial owner and director: a passport and proof of address, with background and source of wealth. Under the Central Bank's 2025 anti-money-laundering directive, a bank may accept a passport and an electronic utility bill and check identity remotely.
• The company documents: the incorporation certificates, the Memorandum and Articles, the UBO extract and the tax number.
• The business: what it sells, to whom and in which countries, with evidence such as contracts, invoices, a website or a business plan.
• Source of funds for the opening deposit, and the expected monthly flows in and out.
• Substance, where the provider asks: the office lease, the resident director where there is one, the accountant and the registrations.

• Applying before the company has substance. A company with no office, no resident director where one is expected, no accountant and no registrations is harder to bank. Most Cyprus banks expect a Cyprus-resident director and physical presence; an EMI is usually the first account.
• An incomplete or inconsistent file. The business description, the contracts and the source-of-funds evidence have to tell the same story. We check every document against the provider's checklist before it goes in.
• Expecting a firm to open the account. No firm can. The company is the account holder, you are the applicant and the signatory, and providers insist on meeting you.
• Choosing bank or EMI by habit. A bank opens in weeks or months, with lending and the deposit guarantee scheme up to €100,000; an EMI opens in days or weeks, remotely, with no lending. The business decides which.
• Large balances in one EMI. EMI funds are safeguarded but not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme, so for larger balances the choice of provider and the spread of funds matter.