[pavlov]

If you're thinking about starting a company in Estonia under the "e-residency" program, you should know that Estonian banks have recently become very skeptical about opening bank accounts for foreigners. It's not enough that you have an Estonian corporation, you'll probably be expected to demonstrate that your business has actual ties to Estonia.

Finnish entrepreneurs are being denied bank accounts despite the close ties of the two countries: https://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000006279056.html (Article in Finnish only, sorry)

The background for this change is a huge money laundering scandal where Estonian banks took in Russian money over decades with very few questions asked... It sucks that "little guy" startup founders are the ones getting excluded, but that's how it goes.

[atlasunshrugged]

Unfortunately, it isn't a new issue, I left the e-residency programme soon after the banking scandal (unrelated to why I left) but bank accounts have always been a major problem, especially because most of the business banking sector in Estonia is run by foreign firms with local branches rather than Estonian banks.

[pavlov]

Startup idea: Create the globalized equivalent of Silicon Valley Bank in Estonia — a local bank that serves credible startups around the world, with staff that has the competence to evaluate customers’ tech chops.

[csomar]

There are already a dozen for these "fintech" companies. They offers cards and virtual IBAN (which is as good as a regular IBAN).

1. They expensive (like 30euro/months) for what the banks offer for free.

2. No credit cards / Credit lines.

3. No investment accounts (though I'd avoid banks for brokerage).

[ex3ndr]

Literally any creepy bank will be better than SVB, no?

[pavlov]

No need to imitate anything about the actual SVB, just like "Uber for X" doesn't mean you'd necessarily want to follow Uber's business or engineering practices :)

[lagadu]

How recently? I opened an account for my Estonian company as an e-resident (from the EU) in Q1 2019 and it took a grand total of ~40 minutes at the bank to get everything working. I had to visit the bank HQ in person but the whole process was really really smooth sailing.

[marcosdumay]

It doesn't really matter how smooth it is, the entire point of e-residency is lost if you have to personally go there once in a while.

The fact that the meeting only takes 40 minutes is just extra injury if you had to travel 6000km to get there.

[lagadu]

To be clear, I did that because I wanted the convenience of having Leapin to also have access to my accounts so they'd handle my invoicing and expenses without any significant trouble for me (ie. sending them the account movements periodically). Originally I had an electronic payments account in a Finnish bank and for that I didn't have to travel anywhere but I needed a full bank account so I'd be able to pay dividends into it so I went there. If I just wanted to pay myself via salary I wouldn't have needed to travel there at all but I'd rather my income be via dividends than via a salary because of tax purposes in my country of residence.

That said, I could've used a business account opened in other banks (including outside of Estonia) to do that but I'd be missing out on the convenience that is them having access to the account.

[csomar]

What documentation did they ask for?

[lagadu]

The company's details (which was already up and running and registered in Estonia) which were provided by my accounting services and my e-residency ID. Once there I also needed to provide my national ID card (Portuguese), EU citizens from countries that don't have that would have had to provide a passport instead.

[Lucadg]

I can confirm that. We had to settle for a European fintech after trying many banks.

It feels like the banking system has its own rules and the Estonian government can't do much about it.

[penetrarthur]

Banks are extremely nonfunctional in Baltic countries probably because of how little people live there. I think there is a large potential for good international banks.

[Scoundreller]

It looks like their big banks are just branch plants of bigger European banks anyway:

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/comp...

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/comp...

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/comp...

[dullgiulio]

Citation needed? My Estonian bank has offered instant payments in the EU for free for more than one year, an app that buzzes my phone at every payment I make with my contactless card, or use the phone directly as bank card... Without using Apple Pay. Something I rekon is still not common in many countries including the UK...