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Banking in Antigua and Barbuda runs on two licensing tracks. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank licenses commercial banks under the Banking Act 2015, and its register dated 25 June 2026 shows four banks in the country:
Royal Bank of Canada no longer appears on that register, whatever older guides say.
The Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC) licenses international banks, which are corporations formed under the International Business Corporations Act and licensed for international banking business. Its directory as at 24 September 2026 names seven Class 1 licensees: BOI Bank Corporation, BRS Banque S.A, D Bank Ltd (formerly Davos International Bank), International Investment Bank Ltd, NIBank Ltd (formerly North International Bank), Tolomeo Bank Limited and Unicorp Bank Overseas Ltd.
The same FSRC directory places Global Bank of Commerce Ltd among banks in official administration, liquidation or receivership, next to Stanford International Bank (in liquidation), Meinl Bank (Antigua) (in receivership) and Nexo Bank Inc (in voluntary liquidation). A bank on that list is not one to apply to, and the list changes, so check status with the FSRC or the ECCB first.
Deposit protection is being built for the whole currency union. The eight ECCU governments signed the agreement establishing the Eastern Caribbean Deposit Insurance Corporation on 19 July 2024. Article 16 insures each deposit up to 50,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars, applied to everything a depositor holds in one capacity at one institution, and Article 17 extends this to deposits held in foreign currency as well as EC dollars. Policyholders are institutions licensed under the Banking Act, so the four commercial banks would be covered while the FSRC’s international banks, licensed under a different Act, would not. Companies are not excluded: Article 23 bars only directors, officers and significant shareholders who caused or profited from a failure.
The agreement starts only when the last member government deposits its ratification. Antigua and Barbuda’s Senate passed the implementing bill in May 2025, and Montserrat passed its Act in April 2026 with commencement left to a later order. We found no announcement that cover has begun, so ask the bank directly whether its deposits are insured today.
Section 61 of the International Business Corporations Act asks for one director, and a corporate director based abroad qualifies; section 64 requires a resident agent in Antigua and Barbuda for service of process. Beneficial ownership is recorded but never published: the statutory test is ultimate ownership or effective control rather than a fixed percentage, domestic companies file an annual attestation with the Registrar, and an IBC reports through its licensed registered agent. A bank will set its own beneficial owner declaration beside that record.
None of the four commercial banks publishes criteria for an IBC owned from abroad. CIBC Caribbean opens business accounts online only for sole traders, and Caribbean Union Bank offers an online form or an appointment without saying who may use it from abroad. Raise non-resident ownership in the first conversation, before papers are certified.
Antigua uses the Eastern Caribbean dollar, fixed since 7 July 1976 at 2.70 to the US dollar. The country does not appear in SWIFT’s IBAN Registry, where Saint Lucia is the only ECCU member, and it is outside SEPA. Of the payment platforms, Airwallex leaves Antigua and Barbuda off its list of eligible registration countries.
Our offer page counts most Caribbean offshore jurisdictions, Antigua among them, as places where a shelf company with an account already open is not readily available. Where an IBC does hold an account, a sale of the shares leaves the account with the company; what follows is the bank’s fresh review of the new owners, directors and signatories, after which it keeps the account, asks for more papers or closes it.
We can supply a company from our ready-made Antigua IBCs or carry out company formation in Antigua, assemble the bank file with you and, if one of the banks where we have a working contact fits the activity, make an introduction. The bank alone decides on the account. The Antigua overview covers the IBC itself, and the guide to shelf companies with a bank account sets out the wider options.
The FSRC’s directory dated 24 September 2026 lists Global Bank of Commerce Limited under banks in official administration, liquidation or receivership, not among the seven licensed international banks. Treat it as closed to new business; accounts already held there are a matter for the official administrator.
The ECCB register of June 2026 lists four commercial banks: Antigua Commercial Bank, Caribbean Union Bank, Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank and CIBC Caribbean Bank (Barbados). The FSRC’s September 2026 directory adds seven international banks, among them D Bank, NIBank, Tolomeo Bank and Unicorp Bank Overseas.
Not on anything we could confirm today. The ECCU agreement of July 2024 would insure deposits at Banking Act banks up to 50,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars per depositor at each bank, in any currency, without excluding companies. It takes effect only after every ECCU government has ratified, and the FSRC’s international banks are outside it in any case.
No. Antigua and Barbuda is not in SWIFT’s IBAN Registry; within the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union only Saint Lucia is. The country is outside SEPA as well, so a euro payment from Germany or France arrives as a cross-border SWIFT transfer quoting the bank’s SWIFT code and the account number.
Seldom. Our offer page treats pre-banked shelf companies as not readily available in most Caribbean offshore jurisdictions, Antigua included. If an IBC already banks, the account remains the company’s after the share sale, but the bank reassesses the incoming owners, directors and signatories and may continue, ask for further documents or end the relationship.