Guernsey company bank account: getting past the residents' door

The Guernsey Financial Services Commission's register of banks held 23 names in November 2026. Pick a group to see which banks say what about business clients on their own pages.

Register names as the GFSC lists them. Several entries show the status "Inactive" on the register, including UBS AG's and Lloyds' Guernsey branches; Lloyds' own pages still describe its Guernsey branch as licensed, so we don't read more into that column.

Schedule 3 to the Criminal Justice (Proceeds of Crime) (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 1999 lists four cases that need "enhanced measures" whatever the risk score. The first is a customer who isn't resident in the Bailiwick. The GFSC Handbook (section 8.9) then tells the bank to understand why, and says the reason should be "more detailed and substantive than merely 'tax planning'". So build yours. What will the company mainly do?

Two more items on the list can apply to you: nominee shareholders, directly or one level up, and a company used as a personal asset holding vehicle. Each is its own enhanced measures trigger. Neither is a refusal; both mean the bank will look through to you and to where the money came from.

On 5 May 2026 the GFSC moved electronic verification into chapter 5 of its Handbook and wrote it for apps. A bank may let you capture photos "or a video" of yourself with your identity documents, then check them independently, once it has a written risk assessment of that technology covering deepfakes and synthetic identities.

1. Biometric matchYour face in a live capture matched to the passport photo, with authenticity checks on the document.
2. Chip readingThe passport's chip read by the phone.
3. LivenessAn action such as repeating words, so a photo or a recording can't stand in for you.
4. Video call aloneUseful for talking; relying on it "without independent verification" is a risk the Handbook warns about.
5. Selfie holding your passport"Not an acceptable means" of verifying identity.

Paper still works too: copies certified by a trusted professional, or an electronic certification system with the same controls, cover the fact that nobody met you. Which method a bank offers is its own choice, and none of the banks we read promises a fully remote opening for an owner abroad.

Paragraph 10 of Schedule 3 lets a bank accept a customer introduced by a regulated firm, an "Appendix C business", which in Guernsey includes the licensed fiduciary that runs your company. The introducer signs a certificate, keeps the records and hands over copies of your identity documents "immediately upon request". Since 8 May 2026 it may also pass on identity it collected through its own electronic verification.

The bank identifies anyone with more than 25% of the shares or votes, or the right to appoint or remove most of the board. The register returns name, date of birth, nationality, country of residence and the grounds of ownership. The Handbook is plain that the register is "not a substitute" for the bank's own checks, and that introduced business "has the capacity to be high risk", so the provider's file has to be complete.

The residents' accounts at HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest International publish neat monthly fees. The corporate desks mostly price each relationship themselves; Butterfield is the exception that prints some numbers. Say where your owners live to see which of these prices you could actually be charged.

Butterfield sets its normal maintenance fee at its own discretion, and charges £25 for an online international payment. What its schedule does show is that a higher risk rating costs money rather than ending the conversation. No Guernsey bank we read publishes a minimum balance for a company owned from abroad; NatWest International's notice deposits start at 25,000 in each currency.

The Guernsey Banking Deposit Compensation Scheme pays up to £50,000 per person per licensed bank, and total payouts in any five years are capped at £100 million, shared out pro rata if claims go higher. Its member banks repeat the scheme's terms; Skipton International's notice says the scheme "does not apply to companies, trusts, partnerships or charities", with narrow exceptions such as retirement annuity trusts.

Guernsey branches of UK banks, Lloyds' among them, belong to the Guernsey scheme rather than the UK's. So a Guernsey company account is protected by the strength of the bank that holds it. That makes the choice of bank, and spreading large balances, part of running the company well.

The Handbook says plainly that, outside what the law requires, whether to take or keep a customer "is a commercial decision". These are the reasons that show up in the rules and the banks' own criteria.

Nothing in Guernsey's company rules makes a company bank on the island. Many start with an e-money account for invoicing while the bank reviews. Wise lists Guernsey among the places where its customers can hold money, though no page we read says which countries a business may be registered in, so support is confirmed at sign-up. E-money is safeguarded, not deposited, and the island's scheme doesn't cover it; for a company, that is the same position as a Guernsey bank deposit.

Banks in London or the EU see a Guernsey company as foreign. It can work, and it is always the bank's decision. Guernsey also reports accounts to other tax authorities under the Common Reporting Standard and FATCA through its Revenue Service, so a bank anywhere will ask for the company's tax self-certification.

Bank account setup is part of what you pay us: £2,490 for year one and £2,590 a year after, with the licensed provider's filing, resident agent, registered office and owner register filing included. It almost always goes through, and if a bank declines, we go to the next one that fits. A nominee director is £2,950 a year if you want one; the bank still knows the owner. See the full Guernsey company offer, the yearly filings in Guernsey annual fees and the Guernsey tax guide, where the island's substance rules for holding, headquarters and IP companies are covered.