Cyprus company bank account: a bank, or an EU payment account?

Founders often treat this as one decision. It is two: which account the company needs on day one, and which it needs once it has a trading history. Tick what applies to yours.

A payment institution or e-money institution licensed in the EU gives the company an IBAN, cards and SEPA transfers. The Central Bank of Cyprus keeps a register of these firms, separate from its list of 15 credit institutions. What a payment firm cannot do is lend, or hold money under the deposit guarantee.

The one legal line runs through the company of foreign interests route: its €200,000 investment goes into an account with a credit institution licensed by the Central Bank, which a payment account is not.

Every Cyprus bank works from one text: the Central Bank's directive on preventing money laundering, 2025 edition, published on 2 May 2025 and in force a month later. It replaced the 2019 directive that drove the account closures. Paragraph 37 decides what happens to a company like yours.

A Cyprus company has its accounts audited or reviewed every year and is tax resident in Cyprus, so it does not fall into the first column. The fight is between the second and the third, and you win it with evidence: a website or shop, contracts, invoices, customer names, accounts and tax returns as they build up. A secretary and an address on their own, the directive says, do not show physical presence.

Two more lines matter. Banks must not refuse whole categories of customers (paragraph 12), and they may identify you by video under the European Banking Authority's remote onboarding guidelines (paragraphs 27 and 28).

Rejection letters rarely give a reason. The reasons are written down anyway, in the directive and in the customer acceptance policy Bank of Cyprus publishes.

• No sign of a businessOnly a registered office, no website, no contracts, no customers named.
• An owner the bank can't seeNominee shareholders without the trust deed, or a chain of companies with no reason given.
• A country on the bank's highest risk listDirectors, signatories or 25% owners living there, especially when nobody meets the bank.
• Crypto exchange or dealingBank of Cyprus lists issuing, dealing and exchanging virtual currency as not accepted.
• Bearer sharesNot accepted at Bank of Cyprus anywhere in the ownership chain.
• Questions left unansweredExpected volumes, countries and main partners are part of the profile the directive requires before opening.

Notice what is not on the list: living outside Cyprus. It raises the questions; it doesn't end the application.

The directive lists what a bank collects from a company (paragraph 37, points 9 and 10), and the Bank of Cyprus company checklist follows it closely. Two answers change your list.

Papers from outside Cyprus come as originals with an apostille, or as copies certified by a professional the bank relies on (directive paragraph 59). Utility bills must be under six months old, and Bank of Cyprus does not accept mobile phone bills.

Cyprus bank fees vary more by who you are than by what you do. Bank of Cyprus prices clients of its International Business Units on a separate list from its local business clients. Ancoria prices residents and non-residents differently. Set the two things that move the bill.

The one-off charges are worth knowing before you choose. Bank of Cyprus opens the account free, charges €200 to close it, and €5 to €12 per SEPA payment sent online depending on the amount. Ancoria may charge a company with a complex structure a one-off €100 to €1,000, agreed in advance.

No Cyprus bank publishes a total time for a company owned from abroad, and we won't make one up. What shortens it is a file that answers the economic profile questions before they are asked.

Which account you choose changes what happens if the institution fails. A bank and a payment firm protect money in different ways.

One exclusion catches holding structures: the Central Bank's answers on the scheme treat a company whose main activity is acquiring shareholdings as a financial institution, and its deposits fall outside the guarantee.

Crypto is where banks and founders talk past each other. Bank of Cyprus's acceptance policy refuses companies that issue, deal in or exchange virtual currency. That describes a crypto business serving clients, which needs an EU licence under MiCA anyway. It doesn't describe a consulting company that is paid in USDC and converts once a month.

Cyprus taxes crypto gains at a flat 8%, explained on our Cyprus company page; the crypto company guide compares places that license crypto services.

Cyprus has reported financial accounts under the Common Reporting Standard since 1 January 2016, and inside the EU under the directive known as DAC2. When you open the account, you fill in a self-certification with the company's tax residence and, where the rules ask, yours.

Where do you live? pick it

The public sees less. Cyprus shows shareholders on a €10 Registrar search, but the beneficial owner register is open to banks and authorities, not to the curious; our Cyprus company search guide shows what anyone can see.

It almost always goes through. If one bank says no, we take the file to another that suits the business. The full offer is on our Cyprus company page, and the tax side in the Cyprus tax guide.