US Company Bank Accounts

Your Own US Company Bank Account for Your Delaware Corporation or LLC

If you want to fly to the USA (into Philadelphia with a short, 1/2 hour, drive to Wilmington) we can recommend a couple of banks you can visit that will open accounts for your company for free.

If you are Canadian and you bank with the Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal or TD Canada Trust, you should be able to walk into your local branch and make arrangements through them to open an account for your Delaware Corporation or LLC in their US subsidiaries. They each have their own retail bank in the USA where they'll open your company bank account for you.

Beware of Nominee Banking Services.
Although this service may feel like your only available option you should only think of it as temporary at best, until you can come to the USA and open an account properly. If you're thinking of opening a bank account with someone else controlling it, take this into consideration: When a lot of accounts are all opened with the same signor, and 1 account happens to go wrong in the eyes of the government (which is pretty easy these days), what do you think is going to happen. I see two possible scenarios: 1 (and this is the good one). That all the accounts are closed and refunded (this is pretty common with foreign related accounts anyway), or 2. The government seizes all the accounts and all the funds in the accounts for an indeterminate amount of time (you know the government doesn't do anything quickly, especially when they have your money).

The thing is, that even if you give power of attorney to someone to manage your account, you are still the beneficial owner, and it's the beneficial owner that the regulators care about, not who signs the application or lends their SSN to it.

If you already have an HSBC account in your local HSBC, and have had for at least a year, you should be able to get them to open an account for your Delaware LLC or Corporation in HSBC USA. There are a fair number of steps to follow but it can be done.

If you already have a Citibank account in your local Citibank, and have had for at least a year, you should be able to get them to open an account for your Delaware LLC or Corporation in Citibank USA at a branch in Vilanova, Philadelphia.

If you don't have relationships with any of the banks mentioned above, first, go to your local bank and ask them if they can help you to open an account in the USA.

If you don't have an existing banking relationship you can use to get a bank account in the USA, then you'll have to fly to the USA to open one in person. You should contact your favorite banks in the area you plan to visit and see what their requirements are for opening an account for your Delaware LLC or Corporation. Not all banks will open an account for your Delaware company even if you do show up in person, but some will.

Most States don't consider a bank account to be doing business in that State, but California does, so unless you are actually setting up business in California, you'll probably want to avoid getting an account in California.

Since New York, NY is a major international hub, a lovely place to visit, and a State that doesn't consider having a bank account there to be doing business there, it's a great place to get a bank account for your company. You can contact any number of banks there. Or, if you want to fly into Philadelphia and drive over to Wilmington, Delaware you can walk into a Wachovia or Bank of America and get an account there.

Be sure to call the banks you are interested in prior to making your travel arrangements to ensure you have everything you need with you when you arrive. Surprises in these cases are not usually good ones, so proper preparation is important.

In any case we'll help you to get any required documents your chosen bank requires of you. We can supply Certified Copies of your Certificate of Incorporation (Corp) or Certificate of Formation (LLC) as well as Certificates of Good Standing or a Certificate of Incumbency. A Certificate of Incumbency is written by us, as your Registered Agent and can declare any number of things based on the corporate records we keep or the services we provide, including a statement that you are in good standing with the State of Delaware or that you aren't doing any business in New York State (which is generally required to get an account in NY by a Delaware company).