Offshore Company Formation Requirements

HSBC

1. All the directors (or at least 2 if there are more than 2 directors) and all bank signatories need to come to HK. All other directors, shareholders & bank authorized signatories may come to Hong Kong or go to their branch/subsidiary in any country (except for Taiwan), so that they can witness their signatures and verify their passport copies.
2. All directors, bank authorized signatories and shareholders with more than 10% shareholding each need to provide address proof (e.g. original water/telephone bill or bank statement issued within 2 months).
3. Business proof for a new company e.g. the new company's agreement or communication with a potential buyer or supplier, or latest financial information/source of wealth of the beneficial owners, such as tax demand note, employment contract.
4. The Company is normally required to have a holding company or a real office and staff working in HK. If this condition cannot be met, then they would require:
1. One director/shareholder needs to provide documents of an existing company owned by him/her in the same industry as the new company and at least two sales and two purchase invoices with bank statements to support the bank deposits/payments.
2. It is preferrable to provide a simple business plan for the new company specifying its business (e.g. trading including the kinds of products to sell, what kind of consulting service), place of operations including the office location, number of staff to be employed, countries of major customers & suppliers, annual sales, profit margin, amounts going into & out of the bank accounts for the first year.

Hang Seng Bank (member of HSBC Group and using the same internet banking system)

1. All directors and bank authorized signatories need to come to Hong Kong.
2. All directors, bank authorized signatories and shareholders with more than 10% shareholding each need to provide address proof (e.g. original water/telephone bill or bank statement issued within 2 months).
3. The Company is normally required to have a holding company with an annual turnover over US$1.5M or a real office and staff working in HK.

Standard Chartered Bank

1. All directors and bank authorized signatories need to come to Hong Kong.
2. All directors, bank authorized signatories and shareholders with more than 10% shareholding each need to provide address proof (e.g. original water/telephone bill, bank statement issued within 2 months.) If any address proof is not in English nor Chinese, you are required to have a local lawyer to translate it into English and certify its English version.
3. The Company is normally required to have a real office and staff working in HK unless its owner is willing to buy insurance.

OCBC Wing Hang Bank

1. All the directors (or at least 2 if there are more than 2 directors), all bank signatories and shareholders with more than 10% shareholding each must come to HK & provide address proof e.g an original bank statement or utility bill issued within 2 months, a valid driving licence with an address on it. For those directors not coming to HK, their original passports & address proof need to be brought to HK.
2. One director/shareholder needs to provide documents of an existing company owned by him/her in the same industry as the new company and at least two sales and two purchase invoices with bank statements to support the bank deposits/payments. In the case where no director/ shareholder has owned a business from the same industry before, then one of the directors/shareholders needs to provide proof of their working experience in the same industry e.g. employment contract and/or some emails with at least two customers and two suppliers discussing about the Company's future business.
3. It is preferrable to provide a simple business plan for the new company specifying its business (e.g. trading including the kinds of products to sell, what kind of consulting service), place of operations including the office location, number of staff to be employed, countries of major customers & suppliers, annual sales, profit margin, amounts going into & out of the bank accounts for the first year.

Phone Banking Service/Internet Banking Service

All the above 4 banks provide Internet Banking Service, by which you can use Internet to assess your bank accounts for making balance enquiries and transfers.

ATM Card

You can use their ATM card to withdraw money from the Company's bank accounts using any specified ATM machines ("Sirrus" for Standard Chartered Bank and "Plus" for OCBC Wing Hang Bank, HSBC and Hang Seng Bank) in the world. There will be a bank charge for each transaction and some exchange loss.