Opening an account with a Chinese bank. Service offer

Corporate documents (using a company incorporated in Hong Kong as an example)*:

1. Certificate of incorporation;
2. Business registration certificate;
3. Form NAR1 (or NNC1 for a new company);
4. Articles of association.

* The list of documents is not exhaustive. The bank is not our related party and has the right to request any other documents and information. The list of documents for companies incorporated OUTSIDE Hong Kong may differ from the one given here.

Business profile of the company:

1. KYC questionnaire, including a detailed description of the company’s activity and its economic indicators, information on the desired currencies and proposed incoming / outgoing payments;
2. Contracts with existing counterparties and invoices thereto (or contracts of intent or contracts of an existing company that conducts analogous activity);
3. Bank statements (if there is none, one can provide bank statements of an existing company that conducts analogous activity);
4. Business plan or presentation of goods / services;
5. Detailed description of the company’s activity.

Documents for individuals in the structure of the company:

1. Passport copy;
2. Copy of a document proving the residential address (must be not older than 3 months and translated into English);
3. Director’s CV.

At this step, the bank is provided with a set of documents in electronic form and supporting information on the company’s activity, economic indicators, proposed counterparties and cash flows.

Based on the provided information and scan copies of documents, we prepare and send a pre-approval application to the bank with which an account is to be opened. On average, the feedback on the application is received within 5-10 workdays, unless the bank asks any additional questions.

Based on the bank’s feedback received at the pre-approval stage, we make a list of documents required to open an account.

Before the account opening procedure is initiated, we need to:

• determine if remote account opening is needed;
• some banks require two persons for the purpose of opening and managing an account: in this case, we need to appoint a second person, besides director, who will be authorized to receive a token and manage the account (for example, chief financial officer), translate into Chinese the articles of association of the company and passport copies of director and the second person;
• order seals: round seal for the company and square seal for director;
• provide the lease contract and photos of an office in China;
• obtain a Chinese phone number for individuals managing the account.

If the remote account opening procedure is chosen, one or two attorneys (depending on the bank) participate in a meeting in the bank and the signing of the forms.

Please note that, if an attorney participates in the opening of an account, original passports of the company’s director and second person will have to be sent to China for verification along with the other documents.

If representatives of the company visit China to open the account, original passports are not required to be sent preliminarily.

After the complete set of original documents has been received in China, the bank sends the Central Bank a request to assign the non-resident company a special code.

A Chinese phone number is required to file an application for a special code. If necessary, we can assist with obtaining an eSIM for this purpose.

Then a visit to the bank is planned to meet with a bank employee, sign forms and obtain tokens.

In the case of remote account opening, after the meeting with the bank’s employee, attorneys receive the set of documents previously provided to the bank, including director and second person’s passports, and tokens to manage the account.

In the case of opening an account with a visit, director, when entering China, needs to buy 2 SIM cards to which they will receive account activation codes during the meeting with the bank’s employee.

Director can visit the bank alone (without the second person), but they have to bring the original passport of that person.

*The service fees are effective as of November 2025. 5% VAT applies.

**Some banks require two attorneys.