The company is registered, and now the account follows. With the right file that is not an obstacle but a form. Banks and payment providers worldwide ask about the same things: who you are, who owns the company, where the money comes from and what you sell. Put that together beforehand and you get the account faster. For the US LLC, our core product, GCS prepares this file as part of the process.
Why the bank asks, and what that means for you
Every bank and payment provider reviews new customers. This review is called KYC (know your customer, the review of the people) and KYB (know your business, the review of the company). In the EU the anti-money-laundering directive requires it, internationally the FATF Recommendations (section 10 GwG).
The bank wants to know five things:
- who the contracting party is,
- who the beneficial owner is, the person who ultimately owns the company,
- what the account is for,
- whether a politically exposed person is involved, someone with high public office,
- whether later payments match these details.
The advantage for you: the questions are the same everywhere. A good file works at Mercury just as well as at a bank in Cyprus.
In short: banks everywhere ask about the same things, and one file answers them all.
The people: passport, address, owners
A beneficial owner is any natural person with more than 25% of the shares or voting rights or comparable control. For a single-member LLC that is simply you. If a holding company holds the shares, you disclose the chain up to yourself, with a register extract at each level.
For each owner and manager the bank needs:
- a valid passport,
- proof of address, such as a lease, utility bill or bank statement, usually no older than three months,
- a statement on whether the person holds or has held high public office.
If you live in a country without income tax, such as the United Arab Emirates, your lease and residence permit there provide the proof of address. If you work without a fixed residence, we clarify with you beforehand which proof of address the provider accepts. If you have a certificate of tax residence, the official confirmation of where you pay tax, add it.
In short: passport and proof of address for each owner, for an LLC usually just your own.
The company: what the bank wants to see
The bank wants to know that the company exists, who represents it and who owns it. It asks for:
- certificate of formation, a current register extract and the list of members or shareholders,
- the company’s constitution: for an LLC the operating agreement, for a Ltd the articles of association, for an OÜ the articles,
- the tax number, for a US LLC the EIN from the IRS,
- proof of the business address or of the registered agent, the service address of every US company.
The GCS package for the LLC includes the EIN, operating agreement, registered agent and business address. The company part of the file is therefore complete at handover. A current certificate of good standing, the state’s confirmation that the company is in good order, you can request from the state when needed.
Incidentally: Wyoming does not list LLC members in the register merely because they are members, and US companies are exempt from BOI ownership reporting, provisionally since March 2025 and permanently since August 2026 (FinCEN). The bank identifies the owners itself, for its own records only.
In short: for an LLC the GCS package delivers the company documents in full.
Source of funds: two documents, a clear answer
The source of funds has two levels. Source of funds asks about the specific money flowing into the account: the capital contribution, the first customer payment, a loan. Evidence: a statement of the originating account or a customer contract.
Source of wealth asks how your assets arose overall: income over years, the sale of a business, an inheritance. Evidence: tax assessments, purchase agreements, a certificate of inheritance. Banks ask for it with unusually large deposits, politically exposed persons or links to high-risk third countries. “Savings” without evidence is not enough, a bank statement and a tax assessment are.
In short: one document for the specific money, one for how your assets arose.
Purpose and payment flows: your business in numbers
The bank asks what the account is for:
- which countries customers pay from and where you pay suppliers,
- in which currencies,
- what monthly volume flows,
- how many payments of what typical size,
- whether cash plays a role.
Add evidence of the activity: customer contracts, invoices, website. A new company provides a business plan, letters of intent from future customers or contracts from the founder’s previous work. Website and application describe the same business. More in Why banks decline.
In short: describe your business in countries, currencies and amounts, backed by contracts.
Apostille and translation: only where the bank needs them
US payment providers work with uploads and video identification, and certifications are rarely needed there. Banks outside the state of formation sometimes ask for an apostille, an official stamp under the Hague Convention confirming a document’s authenticity, and a certified translation. The bank decides which documents that covers. We plan in the processing time.
In short: for US providers an upload usually suffices, for banks abroad plan for apostille and translation.
Germany, Austria, Switzerland
If you are still resident in Germany at formation, you report the shareholding to the tax office with your next tax return (reporting duty, section 138 AO). Account data reach the state where you are tax-resident through automatic exchange of information. The US does not take part in it; US accounts fall under the FATCA agreement, whose scope towards Germany is narrower and which your adviser assesses for your case. Once you move away, you are no longer subject to unlimited tax liability in Germany. How to make the deregistration clean is described in Deregistration is not enough. Austria and Switzerland have their own reporting duties, settled by the local adviser.
In short: the bank file and the tax reporting draw on the same documents.
Our recommendation
For location-independent entrepreneurs GCS recommends the US LLC with an account at Mercury, Relay or Wise. The GCS package delivers EIN, operating agreement, registered agent and address, we prepare the account application, and you add passport, proof of address and source-of-funds evidence. If you live in a country without income tax, your residence there fits the file directly. Without a fixed residence we clarify the proof of address beforehand.
If you live in the EU, form there and open the account with a local bank, for instance in Cyprus. For a Georgian LLC, TBC or Bank of Georgia are the route (Georgia country page). The residence overview shows which residence models fit.
What to do now
Put together the four parts of the file: people, company, money, business. The “Account opening documents” checklist lists them to tick off. Lay website and application side by side. Then the comparison in Fintech or bank pays off. As part of international banking, GCS prepares the file and handles the follow-up questions.