Open a Corporate or Business Bank Account in Dubai, UAE: Mainland Enterprise or Free Zone Company in the United Arab Emirates

Business Account Opening in the UAE for Startup or Established Company

Banking in the UAE

How to open a corporate or business bank account in Dubai? As a banking jurisdiction, the United Arab Emirates differ in many regards from their European counterparts, but most importantly in the way documentary evidence is collected to open a corporate bank account for a startup company in the UAE.

In a nutshell, the account-opening process in the United Arab Emirates is very document intensive. To open a company or business account in a bank in the UAE, entrepreneurs and startupers must visit Dubai and provide (i) corporate bank statements or, in case of a startup company (ii) personal bank statements for themselves, in addition to (iii) invoices for at least 3 incoming and 3 outgoing payments.

And this is just the beginning... A complete list of all documents required to open a company account in Dubai is provided below.

Timeline for Opening a Business Account in Dubai

Account opening in Dubai takes approximately 4 weeks starting from the moment the bank identifies the signatory and all supporting KYC and due diligence documents are collected, translated, duly certified and submitted.

Physical Presence in Dubai

Only the company signatory must visit the UAE, provide proof of entry stamp, and sign the corporate account opening documents in person. This is a legal requirement - no exceptions. On the other hand, the shareholder - if different from the signatory - does not need to be identified by the bank in person. The shareholder can stay at home.

Economic Substance Requirements in the UAE (Lease Agreement, Emirates ID)

In light of the ever growing economic substance requirements worldwide, banks in the UAE are required to document the UAE company's link to the United Arab Emirates. Thus, local companies operating a physical office must provide proof of a lease agreement in order to open a business bank account in Dubai. On the other hand, companies with flexidesks (that is, the use of a variety of communally shared workspaces between a group of subscribers) must document that either the director or shareholder is a resident of the UAE by providing proof of their Emirates ID. Typically, UAE flexidesk companies are allowed to open a corporate bank account in the Emirates if the controlling person's UAE resident permit is provided withing 90 days of account opening. In absence of such proof, the company account will be blocked.

Banking Fees in the UAE

In essence, banking fees for corporate accounts in Dubai largely depend on (i) the average monthly account balance (e.g. above $100,000) and (ii) whether certain limits were exceeded (e.g. over 10 payments were executed per month) or certain deadlines were not observed (e.g. a new valid trade license was not provided after 60 days, or there were no transactions on a current account during 12 months, etc.).

There is no yearly account keeping fee in Dubai strictly speaking, but an account management fee of approximately $1,000 per year de facto applies (typically due to an annual surcharge for free-zone / offshore companies and the automatic account-statement and annual on-line banking token charge). In addition, there are various special-situation fees, all of which, however, are always within reasonable limits.

Financial institutions in the United Arab Emirates generate revenue mainly through foreign exchange transactions on which UAE banks charge between 1% and 1.5%. A detailed schedule of fees and yearly business account keeping costs for a typical bank in Dubai can be found below.

Digital Business Account Opening in the UAE

Banks in Dubai are working hard to digitalize corporate account opening by collecting critical KYC and due diligence information online. Thus, with Mashreq NEOBiz it is in principal possible to "complete an application in 20 minutes".

However, online and digital business bank account opening in Dubai is only easy in plain-vanilla cases involving:

• a UAE trade license
• a UAE resident signatory
• no corporate shareholders
• not more than $8m in yearly turnover

More complex account openings in Dubai featuring foreign signatories or holding companies - or simply more than one individual shareholder - undergo enhanced due diligence (EDD) including double legalization which often fails because of naked exhaustion...

We specialize in corporate and business bank account opening in Dubai and have the expertise and local network to deliver, run, and document company accounts across the UAE.

Which Documents are Required to Open a Company Account in the UAE?

Legal Entity

In scan form (translated into Arabic or English):

• UAE Trade licence (or jurisdictional equivalent)
• Memorandum of Association (or jurisdictional equivalent)
• Shareholder certificate
• Lease agreement (if the company is operating from a physical office) | Emirates ID and personal address proof in the UAE of the shareholder/signatory (if the company is operating from a flexidesk)
• Company bank statements for the last 3-6 months (if existing company)
• Passport and UAE entry stamp of all directors and signatories
• At least 3 invoices of each customer and each supplier (featuring their registered address, website address, and line of business)
• Business plan

Shareholder | Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO)

In scan form (translated into Arabic or English):

• Documentation of the entire holding structure up to the UBO(s) including documents on each intermediate company and the latter's share of participation in the respective daughter company. The paperwork for foreign holding companies must be MOFA attested (here) involving two attestations, from the home jurisdiction and from the UAE, and include (i) the foundation documents (registry excerpt and articles of association) (ii) bank statements for the last 6 months, in addition to (iii) a written confirmation by a chartered accountant on the foreign company's current shareholder structure and active status.
• Passport copies of all shareholders (signed by the signatory)
• Address proof not older than 3 months of all shareholders (utility bill, permanent resident card, etc.)
• CV of the UBO (in free form) featuring e-mail and mobile telephone number
• Personal bank statements for the last 3-6 months of the UBO (if new company)

Costs for Corporate Bank Account Opening in Dubai

Please note that these are success fees payable only upon successful issuance of IBANs for the corporate bank account in Dubai. If no IBAN is issued, we won't charge anything:

Low degree of complexity: €6,000

• Account opening involving only one direct beneficial owner

Medium degree of complexity: €8,000

• Account opening involving more than one BO and/or intermediate holding structures

High degree of complexity: €12,000

• Account opening involving multiple BOs and multiple layers of corporate ownership

Very high degree of complexity: €15,000

• Account opening for private equity funds and other pooled investment vehicles

Banking Fees in the UAE

Transaction Monitoring in the UAE

Since 2018, payments to the United Arab Emirates are subject to special regulatory requirements in order to facilitate the UAE's balance of payments record (BOP). To this effect, information on the transactions of all types of inward and outward flows of funds between UAE residents and non-residents routed through UAE banks must be reported. This includes stating the reason for a payment, which must be identified by a three-letter PoP code in every payment.

A payment lacking a valid purpose of payment PoP code may lead to rejection. Similarly, if an incorrect code is selected (not corresponding to the actual economic reason behind the payment) this may also lead to delays or rejection. In all cases, additional costs may be incurred.

Purpose of Payment or PoP Codes are mandatory for the following transactions in Dubai (UAE):

• All transactions between residents and non-residents
• All cross-border transactions
• All domestic transactions between residents and non-residents

Exempted from the obligation to indicate a Purpose of Payment or PoP code in Dubai (UAE) are the following transactions:

• Transactions between residents
• Transactions between non-residents
• Transactions in the Vostro/Loro accounts of financial institution (UAE bank is AED correspondent for overseas bank)

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References

HSBC Middle East (2018) Explanatory Notes on Purpose of Payments Codes (here)

Purpose of Payment (PoP) Codes in the UAE