Open a Singapore corporate bank account – even with a difficult passport.
Singapore is stricter on KYC than Hong Kong, and every traditional SG account involves the resident-director nominee that local company law requires. We map your passport and business profile to the right path and brief the onboarding desk before you apply – so you know upfront what works for your case.
What we open
Three account types in Singapore
The traditional SG bank is not the only option – it is one path out of two, plus payment processors on top when the business accepts cards from individual customers. Most international founders open a licensed fintech first while the traditional bank file works through Singapore’s heavier substance stage. A corporate crypto account is not a path Singapore currently offers.
Licensed fintech (Virtual bank)
Licensed fintechs (MPI, MSO, EMI) offer multi-currency accounts and fast remote KYC. They usually do not provide the same deposit protection as a traditional bank – they assign you a sub-account inside a partner bank’s master account, with a lower compliance bar but higher infrastructure risk. The practical first account for most international founders.
Traditional SG bank
A traditional corporate account at DBS, OCBC, UOB, or another SG high-street bank. Multi-currency, full feature set – credit lines, deposits, trade finance, SWIFT MT103. A personal visit is required in most cases, and the resident-director nominee participates in the account opening at most banks.
Payment processors (PSP)
Online card-payment processors – the layer your individual customers pay through. Used by e-commerce, SaaS, subscriptions, and marketplaces. Most accept Singapore companies, but each platform runs its own KYC and follows the OFAC restriction list of its US-correspondent chain. PSPs pay out into your fintech or bank account, so they sit alongside one – they don’t replace one.
Which passport tier are you?
How Singapore banks read your passport
Your passport is the biggest factor – though not the only one – in which Singapore account opens. Singapore’s MAS framework is materially stricter than Hong Kong’s. These five tiers match how the banks read you, not how you see yourself. Find your country below to see which account types are realistic.
No FATF concerns, no sanctions. SG banks and fintechs open these profiles with standard KYC. Source-of-wealth file and nominee-director coordination still apply – both are universal to Singapore, not passport-tier specific.
Source-of-funds verification required. No structural barrier – SG banks open these profiles with enhanced due diligence and an introducer; fintechs onboard standard.
Enhanced due diligence required. SG traditional banks impose full source-of-funds and substance interviews; many decline outright without a strong introducer. Profiles in this tier often open more easily in Hong Kong than Singapore.
FATF grey-listed and/or under targeted sanctions. SG mainstream banks decline categorically; licensed fintechs carry these countries on default-decline lists. Options exist for founders residing outside these countries – but structure and residency docs matter enormously.
Listed under OFAC and UN sanctions, or under FATF call-for-action programs. No US-correspondent bank processes the transaction chain. SWIFT access blocked.
How we work
Four steps to a live Singapore account
We sequence the work so there is one decision point per step. The four steps below are the traditional-SG-bank route – fintech and PSP collapse steps 3 and 4 into a single remote KYC.
Scope call
We confirm the realistic banking options for your passport, business profile, and substance position. We name the likely timeline, the nominee-director coordination cost and options, and the blockers you’ll hit.
Profile and documents
We verify the structure matches the banking brief – UBO chain, shareholder nationalities, business scope, address, and other factors. We rebuild the document package to match the bank’s intake format.
Pre-application introduction
Before you submit anything, we introduce your profile to the bank’s onboarding desk and get a preliminary read. If the bank will not take you, we know before you spend the application fee – we move you to the next option.
Director visit (or remote KYC)
Traditional SG banks usually require directors (including the nominee director) in person; OCBC’s online-only path is the narrow exception. We sequence the visit as a single one-day window. Fintech and PSP accounts: fully remote.
Common questions
What founders ask before they book
If yours isn’t here, book a call – we’ll discuss your case in detail.
Can I avoid the Singapore resident-director requirement?
No. Singapore’s Companies Act requires at least one director who is “ordinarily resident in Singapore.” For most international founders, this means engaging a nominee director through a corporate service provider. Banks verify the nominee’s role and expect the nominee at the account-opening meeting at most traditional SG banks.
Practical implication: budget for nominee fees and meeting attendance from the start. Hong Kong has no equivalent resident-director requirement – if avoiding this coordination cost is the priority, HK is structurally simpler.
Do I need to fly to Singapore for the bank meeting?
At most traditional SG banks, yes – the director (or directors, including the resident-director nominee) must attend the bank meeting in person.
The narrow exception: OCBC has an online-only path for SG-registered companies, confirmed by OCBC bankers directly, where the application can be completed without travel. Licensed fintech accounts are fully remote.
How long does it take from first call to live account?
Licensed fintech: 5–10 business days from application to first transaction. Traditional SG bank: 3–5 business days for simple Tier 1 cases, 4–8 weeks for Tier 2 profiles with EDD, 8+ weeks for Tier 3 profiles where the bank accepts at all.
My passport is Tier 3 or Tier 4 – is there a realistic SG path?
Tier 3: limited to selective licensed fintechs – some accept case-by-case, others default to decline. Plus a narrow traditional-SG-bank path with introducer + heavy substance file.
Tier 4: SG mainstream banks decline categorically. The only path is to work with specific fintechs that accept case-by-case after EDD – the introducer’s help matters a lot.
What happens if a fintech account closes?
Licensed SG fintechs reserve the right to close accounts without warning. Refunds take one to two months and require a formal complaint to move.
Mitigation: don’t run your business on a single fintech account. Always maintain a parallel account at a second fintech or at a traditional SG bank.
Tell us your situation. We’ll tell you which account opens.
30 minutes on a call. We confirm the realistic shortlist for your profile, name the timeline and the blockers to expect. If we cannot solve it, we say so.
Book a free 30-minute call