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The Central Bank of Belize licenses two kinds of bank. Its Annual Report 2025 lists four domestic banks under the Domestic Banks and Financial Institutions Act: Atlantic Bank, Belize Bank, Heritage Bank and National Bank of Belize. It also lists three international banks under the International Banking Act: Belize Bank International, Caye International Bank and Heritage International Bank and Trust, all holding the unrestricted Class A licence; no Class B bank is licensed. In the Central Bank’s own description, the international banks offer banking in foreign currencies exclusively to non-residents. That split shapes where a company owned from abroad can bank.
Domestic banks are authorised dealers under exchange control. The Central Bank grants foreign currency accounts in the domestic system mainly to export earners and to businesses that pay foreign suppliers regularly, to facilitate trade rather than to accumulate foreign currency. Only businesses in the Commercial Free Zone or a Designated Processing Area, foreign embassies and diplomats qualify automatically. Everyone else applies through the bank for Central Bank approval on form XCH9, stating the purpose, the beneficial owners, the source of funds and a maximum balance, with certified passports and an ownership chart. Belize dollar accounts are simpler: since 19 June 2017 domestic banks may open them without referral for companies whose signatories are non-resident.
Heritage International, set up in 1998 with a Class A licence to serve non-residents, says its accounts are not subject to local exchange control restrictions and that funds move in and out of Belize in foreign currencies; it offers chequing accounts in US and Canadian dollars, euro and sterling. Belize Bank International caters to businesses that produce and sell a product and requires their transactions to relate to that business; its corporate application asks for a KYC form and passport, identification, proof of address, the standard corporate documents and other supporting papers. Caye International Bank, on Ambergris Caye, offers corporate accounts to IBCs, LLCs, trusts and foundations and runs them through online banking.
The Deposit Insurance Act 2020 creates a Deposit Insurance Corporation for depositors of domestic banks and credit unions. Once it operates, it pays up to 20,000 Belize dollars per insured depositor at each member, with a company’s deposits aggregated and covered in its own right; shareholders of the failed bank, other financial institutions, insurers and government bodies are excluded. International banks are not members. The Corporation has not started: the Central Bank’s 2025 financial statements record that it holds its contribution in escrow pending commencement. Heritage International states plainly that it does not insure customers’ deposits.
The International Business Companies Act has been repealed. Companies are registered with the Belize Companies and Corporate Affairs Registry and supervised by the Financial Services Commission. The 2022 Act asks for one or more directors with no residency test and, unless the company is purely domestic, a licensed registered agent at all times. Beneficial owners at 25 per cent or more are filed through the Online Business Registry System and are not published, so the bank takes its own declaration and expects it to match the filing.
Belize has held its currency at two Belize dollars to one US dollar since May 1976. It has no entry in SWIFT’s IBAN Registry, is outside SEPA, and Airwallex does not list Belize as an eligible registration country.
Our offer page puts most Caribbean offshore jurisdictions, Belize included, in the not readily available group for pre-banked shelf companies. If a Belize company does bank, the account belongs to it and survives a share sale; the bank then checks the buyers, directors and signatories again and keeps, queries or closes the account. A foreign currency approval at a domestic bank was granted on an application naming the beneficial owners, so raise a change of owner with the bank early.
We supply companies from our ready-made Belize shelf list, handle company formation in Belize, prepare the bank file with you and, where a bank at which we have a working contact suits the business, arrange an introduction. The bank decides. Read the Belize overview and the guide to buying a company with a bank account.
Yes. Belize’s three international banks, Belize Bank International, Caye International Bank and Heritage International Bank and Trust, serve non-residents exclusively and in foreign currencies. Domestic banks can open Belize dollar accounts for companies with non-resident signatories under delegated authority, but a foreign currency account at a domestic bank needs Central Bank approval unless the business qualifies automatically.
At a domestic bank, yes, unless it operates in the Commercial Free Zone or a Designated Processing Area. Foreign currency accounts there go mainly to export earners and regular importers, and the bank must obtain Central Bank approval on form XCH9 setting out the purpose, owners, source of funds and a balance ceiling. Accounts at the international banks are in foreign currency by design.
Not yet in practice. The Deposit Insurance Act 2020 provides cover of up to 20,000 Belize dollars per depositor at each domestic bank or credit union, companies included, but the Corporation has not commenced; the Central Bank’s 2025 accounts still hold its contribution in escrow. International banks are outside the scheme, and Heritage International says it does not insure deposits.
Not readily. Our offer page places Belize among the Caribbean offshore jurisdictions where a company sold with an existing account is not readily available. Where a company already holds one, the account remains its own after the sale, but the bank reviews whoever now owns, directs and signs for it before deciding whether the account continues, needs further papers or is closed.