Foreigners open bank accounts in Hong Kong

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss how you as a foreigner or non-resident can get a bank account in Hong Kong.

Important note:

Please note that in this article we will use foreigner and non-resident exchangeably.

In legal terms both don’t have the same meaning.

A foreigner is someone who does not have a Hong Kong passport, but can be a Hong Kong resident (if he lives in Hong Kong).

A non-resident is someone who does not live in Hong Kong (no residency in Hong Kong). This can also be someone who has a Hong Kong passport but lives in a foreign country.

In this article, we mean a foreigner who is simultaneously a non-resident meaning he has neither a Hong Kong passport nor does he have a Hong Kong residency (thus does not live in Hong Kong). So, we discuss how you as a foreigner not living in Hong Kong can obtain a bank account in Hong Kong.

We discuss:

Whether and what type of accounts a foreigner can obtain a bank account in Hong Kong?
Under what circumstances a non-resident can obtain a Hong Kong bank account?
Which banks are easy and which banks are harder to obtain a Hong Kong bank account?

1 – Can foreigners open a bank account in Hong Kong?

Generally speaking, yes.

First things first:

You cannot get a personal bank account in Hong Kong as a non-resident.

But you can get a business bank account in Hong Kong as a non-resident and can almost do the same things you do with a personal bank account.

That’s why you should ask yourself

Why do you want to open a bank account in Hong Kong as a non-resident in the first place?
What do you want to do with a HK bank account as a foreigner?
Do you want to invest with a bank account?
Do you want to protect your assets?
Do you want to receive money from overseas (from clients)?
Do you want to receive money from other people or do you want to just transfer money from one of your bank accounts to another?

If you want to discuss your personal needs and whether a Hong Kong bank business bank account makes sense for you, please feel free to book a call with our legal team.

2 – Why do foreigners open a bank account in Hong Kong?

Let us show you a couple of those use cases how our clients use a Hong Kong bank account to their advantage.

Reason 1: Open a Hong Kong bank account as a foreigner to receive money from clients overseas

Some foreigners who live in different parts of the world such as South America or South East Asia often work for European or North American companies.

These companies usually need an invoice from you in order to deduct that from their taxes.

Tax governments in Europe are very strict about where they receive invoices from, so sending invoices from a Hong Kong company is usually very highly regarded as Hong Kong is not flagged as a tax haven such as Dubai.

Thus, the tax government makes less of a hassle.

Dubai tries to overcome its bad reputation by now introducing a 9% corporate tax which actually again lead to many business owners to open a Hong Kong company to reduce their corporate tax to 0%.

Reason 2: Open a Hong Kong bank account as a foreigner to easily transfer money to Chinese suppliers.

Some foreigners conduct business with China such as dropshipping, or they have suppliers in China and need to transfer money over to China.

To transfer money over to China from a European bank account or business account is sometimes very confusing and makes it hard.

But doing business between China and Hong Kong is much easier as Hong Kong and China have certain business relationships and thus moving money out and inside to China makes it very easy.

At the same time, China and Hong Kong are two different legislation, thus the Chinese government cannot affect the Hong Kong legal and tax system (this becomes important for protecting your asset – see reason 3).

Reason 3: Open a Hong Kong bank account as a foreigner to protect your asset from governments and unstable banking infrastructures.

Foreigners from Western countries who have moved to other less developed countries are afraid of their loss of asset and money because of:

Closure of home country bank accounts: Their bank account in their home countries, such as in Germany or France, is only permitted if they still live in the country. They fear that from one day to another banks may find out that they don’t live in their country anymore, and they close the bank accounts, and they have to move the money away not knowing where to safely store the money.
Unstable banking system in their new country of residency: Some of our clients live in countries such as Brazil, Vietnam, and Paraguay. In these countries the banks are local which may be easier to become bankrupt. Also you are not always able to keep your money in a foreign currency like the USD or Euro, and thus you are dependent on the fluctuation of the local currency. This can be very tiresome in countries with high fluctuation of currency, such as Brazil and Argentina in recent years.
Unstable offshore business bank account: Some foreigners use a US LLC as the business bank account. Due to their non-resident status in the US, they pay 0 tax in the US, but at the same time their bank accounts may freeze their bank accounts. This has happened often in the past for US LLC business owners with a wise business account. Read more about the differences between a US LLC and Hong Kong LLC.

Usually, this type of structure to protect asset and do investments, we call it a Holding company.

A Holden company usually doesn’t do business with clients (the main purpose is not to receive money), but just to hold money and assets.

Reason 4: Open a Hong Kong bank account as a foreigner to get access to investment platforms like Interactive Brokers

If you are a nomad, or you live in a non-western country, you may have realized getting access to interactive Brokers or other investment platforms may get very challenging as they do not accept your address proof of your country.

This is why many foreigners and non-residents use Hong Kong companies simply just to invest their money into stocks.

Some even do this as a full-time job and thus there are basically traders and the company is a trading company

Reason 5: Open a Hong Kong bank account as a foreigner to reduce taxes.

Some other foreigners who live outside Hong Kong use the Hong Kong company structure to reduce their taxes because in Hong Kong you enjoy:

Low dividend tax (0%)
Low corporate tax (0% if no clients in Hong Kong)

Of course, you still have to pay taxes in your residency, but there are two scenarios where you can still lower your tax rate:

If you live in a country with territorial tax or no dividend tax, you basically pay 0% tax overall.

Reason 6: Open a Hong Kong bank account as a non-resident to have access to payment gateways for an e-commerce business.

If you live in a Southeast Asian country or Latin America, you often have problems to get access to payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal) in order to charge customers in foreign countries such as in Europe or in North America with their credit or debit cards.

Usually in those countries, they have their own local payment gateway where international credit cards or debit cards are not included.

Opening a Hong Kong company with Hong Kong bank account then allows you to have payment gateway as you know it from your own home country in the US, Germany or other parts of Europe.

3 – How can foreigners open a bank account in Hong Kong?

As we discussed earlier, you can only open a bank account in Hong Kong if it is for your business in Hong Kong. This means as a requirement you need to have a Hong Kong company.

If you need us to help you with opening a Hong Kong company with a bank account, book a call with us so we can check whether you fulfill all the requirements.

Once you have a Hong Kong company, the rest is usually easy, but some people fail to open a bank account in Hong Kong due to a couple of reasons:

No referral to the bank: If you get a referral to a bank from a CPA or a tax accountant, then it is much more likely that they open a bank account for you because CPAs and legal experts of very highly regarded in Hong Kong. We give all our clients referral to the bank of their choice in order, and seldom have a bank deny our clients.
Mentioning irrelevant information that harms opening a bank account: You should only say the necessary and don’t go into depth when you talk about your business. Remember: Less is more, and you are talking to bank tellers who don’t always have business knowledge as you.
Missing documents: You don’t have all your documents aligned such as the business certificate, your proof of address (no older than 3 months), your passport scan and business transactions from past businesses (sometimes needed).
Sanctioned countries: If you live or do business in countries such as Russia or Ukraine, then opening a bank account will not be possible. Note: If you are Ukrainian or Russian, but don’t live in neither of those countries, then it’s fine and banks accept this.

4 – Why can foreigners open a bank account in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong always welcomes new investors and business owners to open bank accounts and do business and move the money in and out of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has been a business hub, thus it has created

a very stable banking infrastructure
very nice tax structure for business owners (0% corporate tax, 0% dividend tax)
complete online and remote maintenance of the business without being in Hong Kong
not much red tape

5 – How can I open a bank account with HSBC in Hong Kong as non-resident?

If you want to open a bank account with larger banks such as HSBC we usually have a strategy for our clients. We will enclose this for you or in this blog article:

We recommend our clients to first open a bank account with a smaller bank or fintech such as Airwallex.

After 6 months once you have incoming and outgoing transfers in your smaller bank account, we then use this to go to HSBC with our referral, to then open a bank account and show them the transactions from your other bank accounts which will show them:

they can trust you
you have a concrete business

If you have any questions about other banks, feel free to book a call with our legal experts and we will give you more detailed information.

6 – Do I have to be in Hong Kong to open a bank account as a resident?

For fintech banks such as Airwallex, Aspire, Currenxie etc., you do not need to come to Hong Kong and we can do it remotely for you.

For traditional banks such as HSBC you should plan to come over as they still like to see their clients face-to-face, but in some cases we can also make it happen remotely. It is best to prepare for the worst-case scenario though, in case they don’t agree to it.

Can foreigners open bank accounts in Hong Kong as a non-resident? Read this Ultimate Guide

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