Alternative to opening a business bank account in Singapore

Making cross-border business payments to suppliers, clients, or partners in Singapore can be tough if you don’t have a bank account in Singapore dollars (SGD). You can find yourself landed with high currency conversion fees, long waits for funds to clear, and confusing paperwork that takes up far too much of your time.

Singapore is one of Asia’s business hubs, making it an attractive place for people to do business. If you want to pay suppliers, invoice clients, pay local taxes and expenses, or move money back and forth between partners, you’ll find it all goes a lot more smoothly when you have a local SGD bank account. But opening a business bank account in Singapore can have its own difficulties.

How to open a business bank account in Singapore

Singapore’s banks, including the leading banks like OCBC, and UOB, are very supportive of cross-border trading and offer multi-currency business accounts, internet banking, and permits to move funds between countries. Many international banks also have a presence in Singapore, like HSBC, and the Bank of China, and support local SGD business accounts.

You don’t have to be a citizen or resident of Singapore to open a business bank account, but you do have to register your business there, either by opening a branch office in the country, or by creating a subsidiary company incorporated in Singapore. Either way means more fees, more paperwork, and more hassle.

Singapore banks have to comply with rigid “Know Your Customer” rules, so foreigners opening a business bank account have to provide a lot of information to prove their identity and that they have a legitimate business presence in the country. The process is long and involved.

Expect to answer questions about:

• Your identity and that of other business owners or directors
• The background of all business owners
• Where all the business owners live
• Your sales volumes and cash flow
• The source of your business capital
• Your business structure
• Your clients and suppliers
• The nature of your business
• The identity and backgrounds of your main employees

Most banks in Singapore, including international banks, require all the signatories for a business bank account to come in person to open the account. Some of them will let you sign in person at an overseas branch of the bank, or before a Notary Public.

You’ll usually be asked to bring:

• A signed resolution from the business directors approving the opening of an account
• Your Certificate of Incorporation
• Your business profile from the Company Registrar in your company’s home country
• The company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association (MAA)
• Your passport
• Proof of your residential address

You’ll usually have to make a deposit of up to several thousand SGD when you open your account, and many banks require you to keep a minimum monthly balance, especially if you’re opening a multi-currency account.

Some banks offer an online-only SGD account. UOB and Maybank all have online-only business accounts which let you verify your identity through Facetime, Skype, or a phone call instead of attending in person, but most requirements to prove your business, make a deposit, and pay monthly fees still apply.

Aspire is an internet bank that offers a local SGD business account which you can open and manage entirely online, but you do need to incorporate your business in Singapore first.

The Alternative: A Payoneer local SGD receiving account

Payoneer helps you receive payments from Singapore customers and clients, manage currencies, and pay contractors or suppliers in Singapore. Instead of jumping through hoops to open a business account in a local Singapore bank, you could use Payoneer instead.

Payoneer offers a local receiving account that works just like a local Singapore bank account, so you can accept payments in SGD. Anyone you work with who has a Singapore bank account can use the same domestic bank transfer network to make a convenient local bank transfer to your Payoneer SGD receiving account.

It’s easy to set up your SGD receiving account with Payoneer. Just register with Payoneer and choose which local receiving accounts you need^[1] — in SGD, HKD, GBP, EUR, CAD, or USD. You’ll soon be able to view your account details and share them with clients on your invoices, through email, or over WhatsApp.

You can withdraw funds in over 150 different countries and currencies for a low, transparent fee, or you can hold them in your Payoneer account in SGD and use the funds to pay local taxes or global contractors either to their Singapore bank accounts.

Enjoy the benefits of a business account in Singapore

Business runs on trust, and a local business account in SGD helps boost trust for other Singapore businesses. People worry about identity fraud, hacking, and data breaches, so they prefer to work with someone who has a local presence.

Sending payments to and from a local account in SGD is also more transparent. Repeatedly converting funds between different currencies can look like murky business practices, as well as costing you a lot in fees. But when money moves from one local business account to another, it’s easier to trace the payment and it’s less likely to go astray.

Local SGD business payments generally save you money on currency conversions, clear faster, and require less paperwork and administration than overseas payments, all of which can help with your cash flow.

When you have a local SGD business account, you can link it to the local platform for eBay, Amazon, or Toptal, so you can get paid faster in local currency and avoid losing money on currency conversions. Many bookkeeping tools that automate processes like tax calculations and payments also usually integrate with a local business account only.

 

A simpler path to the benefits of a local SGD business account

Payoneer lets you enjoy the benefits of a local SGD business account, without the time, effort, and cost of opening one at an online or local bank. Payoneer’s fast international payment processing, low-cost foreign currency conversions, and support for sending and receiving payments in SGD all make it much more smooth to do business with suppliers, employees, clients, and contractors in Singapore, no matter where you or your business is located.

^[1] According to eligibility and current Payoneer offering