When setting up a business entity all key aspects are taken care of in detail for the process to be successful, however, there is one common mistake that is often made and that is the company's "banking stack", what is known as corporate bank accounts, payment processors and banking relationships.

Banking is critical to the business, it dictates the operations, the security of your funds and the ease with which you can do business and accept payments. And if you tend to have unpredictable payment processing, prone to freezes or periodic closures, constantly rejecting incoming or outgoing transfers, that's a big problem for your business.

If your bank account doesn't work, nothing works. Your ability to manage cash flow, generate profits and accept payments is to rely on your banking plan to work perfectly. Therefore, it is important to consider the banking side of your business at an early stage before proceeding with offshore structuring.

The main reason offshore companies struggle to open bank accounts is that their corporate structures start with the country of incorporation, which is incorrect. You should not just consider jurisdictions for offshore structuring based on tax rates, legal framework or tax treaties.

You should first think about where you will be sending to and receiving payments from. Also, consider the currencies you will use, whether payments will be by credit cards or wire transfers, among others. Then you should consider the services you want to receive from the bank.

Based on all the information obtained after analyzing the banking characteristics of your company, you should review the banks that are aligned with your requirements.

In other words, determine your banking needs and choose the main jurisdictions where you can access those banking services. After that, begin the process of choosing which corporate structuring options can access banking in those countries while meeting your other objectives, such as tax, privacy, asset protection and other business considerations.

If you find this too complicated, our consultants at Foster Swiss can help you through the entire process.

We help you with virtually everything, giving you personalized advice from the moment you choose a corporate structure for your company, up to a year after incorporation, and we take care of the whole process for you.

For more information on this subject or any other requirement related to our services, you can contact us directly at info@fosterswiss.com