FOUNDER · ROMAN VERZIN
USG is built by someone who’s been on the other side of every compliance form.
I hold a Russian passport, and after 2022 every bank said no. Every corporate service provider also said no. That is why USG exists – we solved our own problems first, and now we help entrepreneurs facing the same barriers.
See the cases →
How I got here
China import/export and business consulting
I had been running businesses and projects in China for almost a decade – international trade, with WFOE (wholly foreign-owned enterprise) operations on the ground. Opening bank accounts with a Russian passport already needed extra due diligence; not every bank said yes, but the ones that did were enough to run a normal international business.
The doors closed
After 2022, that changed overnight. Chinese banks – politically neutral on paper – turned out to be more cautious on compliance than most others, because they depend on correspondent banks in the West (the banks abroad that clear their international payments). Instead of doing regular trade, my Chinese companies had to solve banking and payment problems. The business had nothing to do with Russia or sanctions – but my passport alone was enough.
Every bank said no. Every corporate service provider said “we’ll register the company, but you figure out banking yourself.”
Rebuild from scratch
No one had an answer, so I built one. Together with founders facing the same barrier, we tested more than 100 banks and fintech platforms across Hong Kong, China, Singapore, the UK, Cyprus, the USA, and others. We mapped which ones accept which passports and business profiles. We learned where payments get stuck – and how to make cross-border business work even when your profile is flagged before the application arrives.
10+ years across Hong Kong, China, Singapore
USG exists because that rebuild worked. We run our own trading and consulting companies in all three jurisdictions – not just help founders register them. Because we had to find the door for ourselves, we know it from the inside. We not only open the structure and the bank, but stay in the room while the day-to-day operation comes online.
How we do this differently
There are plenty of firms that will register your company. Very few of them will still be in the room when the bank says no, or when you need help with your China project. Here is the difference:
Wondering whether your passport is one of these? See who we help →
Real cases
Anonymised by design – names and company names removed, facts unchanged.
See all the cases →LatAm trader · from three refusals to two open accounts
European-passport founders in LatAm-connected minerals trade. Their Hong Kong company had an account closed in 2025. The trigger sat outside the company: their corporate-secretary provider hosted a sanctioned entity at the same registered address. Three later bank applications were refused. Ownership sat 50/50 between two founders with high-risk birthplaces, and the registered address still pointed to a high-risk country even though both had lived in Europe for years.
A profile audit found the real reasons the bank had acted on. We consolidated ownership to the single founder and updated the director’s address to his European country of residence, then moved the registered office to a clean provider. From there we rebuilt the application from scratch and matched the case to several banks based in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Two banks moved the founders to onboarding. Three weeks to fix the profile, three weeks to prepare for the trip to China and open the accounts in person.
Trading company · operating balance frozen on a payment platform
A trading company whose founder holds a high-barrier-country passport kept its working balance on a large international payment platform – the kind that is quick to open and easy to use. One day, with no real explanation, the platform froze the account with the full balance inside. Payments stopped.
First we found out why. The freeze had nothing to do with what the company had done. One of its own customers held an account at the same platform; when that customer’s accounts were shut down, the link was enough to push the company’s risk score – already not low – over the platform’s line. So we did the work that moves a compliance team: rebuilt the full source-of-funds and transaction history and answered every question in the format they wanted. Support still went in circles – new managers kept asking the same things while the money sat frozen. When it was clear the platform would not resolve it on its own, we filed a formal complaint with the UK Financial Ombudsman.
The money came back in full the day after the complaint landed – paid out to a backup company account we had opened ahead of time, so the business could use it straight away.
Talk to Roman directly
Free 30-minute call. You explain what you are trying to do. By the end you know what is realistic for your case, and whether we are the right firm – sometimes we are not.
Book a free 30-minute call → Or write directly: r.verzin@usg.world LinkedIn ↗ · YouTube ↗There is always a door to global business – for everyone. You just need the right key.