- →
-
Contact Form
-
The Monetary Authority of Singapore is both the central bank and the integrated financial regulator, so every bank, digital bank and payment institution named on this page operates under a MAS licence or exemption. Company deposits fall under the Deposit Insurance Scheme run by the Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures companies as well as individuals up to S$100,000 per depositor per Scheme member, the limit in force since 1 April 2024. Only Singapore dollar deposits are insured, so euro or US dollar balances in a multi-currency account sit outside the scheme. And only full banks and finance companies are members: the digital wholesale banks ANEXT and Green Link do not appear on SDIC’s member list, and a payment institution such as Airwallex is not a bank at all.
The answer differs sharply between the large local banks, the four digital banks MAS selected in December 2020 and the payment institutions. This is what each provider’s own pages say about a Singapore company whose owners live elsewhere.
| Provider | Type | Owners living abroad | How you apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| DBS | Full bank | Accepted. Companies owned by foreigners with non-local residency status, or by foreign corporate shareholders, must go through a Relationship Manager, and the business must have a presence in Asia. | Relationship Manager, not the online form |
| OCBC | Full bank | A dedicated route for Singapore companies owned by foreigners with permanent residency outside Singapore, or by foreign corporate shareholders. | Fully remote with no branch visit, according to OCBC |
| ANEXT Bank | Digital wholesale bank | Possible, with extra documents for foreign business owners. The applicant needs Singpass and Corppass authority. | Online through Myinfo Business |
| MariBank | Digital full bank | Only if every director and every shareholder with 25 per cent or more is a citizen, permanent resident or foreigner with Singpass. No corporate shareholders. | In the app, with Singpass |
| GXS Bank | Digital full bank | No. The Biz Account is designed for sole proprietors who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents. | In the app, with Singpass |
| Airwallex | Major payment institution, not a bank | Singapore-registered companies; passports from any country are accepted as identification. | Online |
Of the providers above, the bank routes that do not depend on Singpass are DBS through a Relationship Manager and OCBC’s remote process. ANEXT opens up if someone in the company, such as the resident director, holds Singpass.
Most of Singapore’s fast digital onboarding runs on Singpass, the national digital identity, which lets a bank pull the company’s ACRA record through Myinfo Business. Singpass is open only to Singapore citizens, permanent residents and Foreign Identification Number holders, that is foreigners holding a Singapore pass. A founder abroad without a pass cannot have one, which is why the MariBank and GXS routes are closed to most foreign-owned companies and why ANEXT needs the application to come from someone in the company who holds Singpass and has Corppass authority.
The person who usually holds Singpass is the resident director. Section 145 of the Companies Act 1967 requires at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore, meaning a citizen, permanent resident or Employment Pass or EntrePass holder, and the company secretary must be resident too. Since 9 June 2025 a professional nominee director must be arranged by an ACRA-registered corporate service provider after a fit and proper assessment, and since 16 June 2025 ACRA has kept central registers of nominee directors and shareholders. Whether that director also signs on the account is for the bank to decide.
DBS publishes the fullest checklist for a Singapore company with foreign owners, and OCBC’s list is similar:
ANEXT may also ask companies with foreign business owners for the registration documents of related companies, recent tax returns or trade documents such as bills of lading with invoices, key counterparties and volumes, and three months of bank statements showing where the funds come from.
Several refusal grounds are written into the banks’ own criteria:
Since 1 April 2024 DBS, OCBC, UOB, Standard Chartered, Citibank and HSBC have been able to share information through COSMIC, the MAS platform, on customers showing multiple red flags, currently focused on misuse of legal persons, misuse of trade finance and proliferation financing. Information about a structure that trips several red flags at one bank can therefore reach the next. Beyond the published criteria, general bank practice is to probe any gap between the business description, the invoices and the expected payment flows.
The operating currency is the Singapore dollar. Domestic payments run on FAST, launched in March 2014 for near-instant Singapore dollar transfers between participating banks, and PayNow Corporate lets a company receive Singapore dollars against its Unique Entity Number. Singapore does not use IBANs: DBS states that its accounts have no IBAN, routing number or sort code, and an overseas payer needs only the bank’s SWIFT code and your account number. Singapore is also outside SEPA, which covers the EU and EEA plus eleven other European countries, so euro invoices are settled by SWIFT into a foreign currency account. DBS’s business multi-currency account, for example, handles 13 currencies.
A shelf company with a bank account for sale in Singapore is a common search, but Singapore is not a market where companies with an existing account are readily available. The account belongs to the company and stays with it when the shares are sold, yet Singapore banks treat new beneficial owners, directors and signatories as a new due diligence case, so the buyer goes through the bank’s onboarding either way. What a ready-made Pte Ltd gives you is the company itself, already on the ACRA register with its UEN, so the application can be prepared once the new directors and shareholders are filed, and the bank assesses it in your name against the criteria above. Compare the routes on our pages for a ready-made shelf company in Singapore and company formation in Singapore; the guide to shelf companies and bank accounts covers the countries where a company with an existing account is a realistic purchase.
We can supply a ready-made Singapore company or form a new one, and help prepare the bank application and its supporting documents. The bank makes its own decision and nobody can promise that an account will be opened. For the wider picture, see our Singapore jurisdiction page and the Hong Kong business bank account guide.
Yes, through a Singapore company. OCBC runs a remote route for Singapore companies owned by foreigners living outside Singapore, and DBS accepts foreign-owned companies through a Relationship Manager if the business has a presence in Asia. Digital banks are harder: MariBank and GXS need Singpass holders, and ANEXT needs a Singpass-holding applicant. The company itself still needs a director ordinarily resident in Singapore.
Not necessarily. OCBC states that its route for foreign-owned companies is fully remote with no branch visit, and Airwallex onboards online. DBS handles foreign-owned applications through a Relationship Manager and does not publish whether a meeting is needed, so ask before you apply. The app-based digital banks avoid a visit but require Singpass, which a founder without a Singapore pass cannot obtain.
Start with currencies: a Singapore dollar account for FAST and PayNow Corporate, plus foreign currency balances if you invoice abroad, since euro payments arrive by SWIFT. Then check how the account is opened and who must sign, whether the provider is a bank covered by SDIC insurance or a payment institution, and whether its criteria fit your activity, such as DBS’s rules on holding companies.
Yes, within limits. SDIC’s Deposit Insurance Scheme covers companies as well as individuals, up to S$100,000 per depositor per Scheme member, and only for Singapore dollar deposits. Full banks and finance companies are members; the digital wholesale banks ANEXT and Green Link are not on SDIC’s member list, and money held with a payment institution such as Airwallex is not a bank deposit.
No. Singapore does not use IBANs. DBS states that its accounts have no IBAN, routing number or sort code, so an overseas payer uses the bank’s SWIFT code and your account number. Singapore is not part of SEPA either, so a European customer pays euros by international transfer, while Singapore dollar payments at home run on FAST and PayNow.
Rarely. The account belongs to the company and stays with it, but Singapore banks treat new beneficial owners, directors and signatories as a new due diligence case, so the buyer goes through the bank’s onboarding in any case and pre-banked Singapore companies are not readily available. A ready-made Pte Ltd saves the incorporation step and arrives with its UEN; the bank then assesses the application on your profile.