Archive for October, 2012

Preparing for the bank meeting

Thursday, October 25th, 2012
  1. Who must go to the bank?
    1. If there is only one director, the only director must go to the bank to open the bank account
    2. If there are more than one director, then at least two of the directors must to go the bank
    3. If a director is also a shareholder and owns more than 10% ownership of the company, he will also need to go.
    4. Anyone (such as a shareholder, beneficiary or an authorized person) who wants to be a signatory of the bank account must also go.
    5. The directors and authorized signatories must be able to speak either English, Cantonese, or Mandarin. No translator is allowed to be present during the bank interview.
  2. What documents are required?
    1. Directors’ and shareholders’ original identity documents such as Hong Kong Permanent ID Card or Passport. If the Hong Kong ID Card is not permanent (ID number beginning with the letter “R”), then a passport must be used.
    2. Directors’ and shareholders’ original residential proofs. Examples of residential proofs are phone bills, electricity bills, bank statements that must have the names and addresses and must be issued within 3 months.
    3. Directors’ and shareholders’ business proofs. Examples of business proofs are financial statements, bank statements, invoices, agreements, way bills, web sites, audited accounts of their previous or existing businesses. If this is their first business, their CVs, previous or existing employment contracts, school transcripts and graduation certificates.
    4. If the original document cannot be provided, then the notarized copy of the document must be provided
    5. The original company documents
    6. The documents must be either in Chinese or English. Otherwise the documents must be translated into either Chinese or English.
  3. What type of bank accounts?
    1. Business banking account
    2. Personal banking account
      1. If you want to open a personal bank account, please make sure you bring your ID and residential proof. You can let the business banking manager know and he will arrange opening the personal account for you. Anyone can open a personal bank account in Hong Kong.
  4. What are the fees?
    1. Account opening fee
    2. Monthly minimum balance fee
    3. Counter service and online service fee
  5. What additional services needed?
    1. Company credit card
      1. Hong Kong PayPal account is the only PayPal account that can withdraw to a Hong Kong bank account, and opening a Hong Kong PayPal account requires a credit card with a Hong Kong billing address.
      2. For the HSBC company credit card, at least HKD $30,000 deposit is required to secure a card with HKD $30,000 of credit.
    2. L/C account
    3. Life insurance
    4. Investment services

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Conducting a name search for a Hong Kong company

Thursday, October 25th, 2012
  1. Go to http://www.icris.cr.gov.hk/csci/
  2. Select “Unregistered User“
  3. In the new pop-up window, select “Accept and Login“
  4. Select the “Search” drop-down menu, then select “Company Name“
  5. Use “Left Partial Search ” to search for existing companies with names similar to your proposed company name
  6. *Very Important* - Use “Exact Name Search” to confirm the availability of the company name
  7. Note: Do not include sensitive words such as Guns, Weapons, Bank, etc in the company name. Also avoid using the following words in the company name: Octopus, International, Worldwide, Global, Finance. If the company name contains the word “Broker“, you will be required to provide appropriate license before opening the business banking account.

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