Corporate banking
Banking a trading company
Trading is the sector banks have retreated from most, and 'general trading' is the phrase that does the damage. Naming your actual products changes the conversation entirely.
The reality
What the bank is actually deciding.
Trading companies present the classic compliance profile: money in from one country, money out to another, goods that the bank never sees, and margins that are hard to verify. That is not an accusation, it is a description of trade finance, and it is why the sector attracts more scrutiny than any other non-regulated activity. Several UAE banks have narrowed their appetite for trading customers substantially, and general trading licences — which permit almost anything — are the hardest sub-category of all.
The single most effective thing a trading company can do is stop describing itself as a trading company. A file that says 'general trading, various products, various markets' is unapprovable because there is nothing for the officer to write down. A file that says 'we import industrial fasteners from two named suppliers in Taiwan and sell to eleven named construction contractors in the UAE and Oman, average shipment value X, paid by letter of credit' is an entirely different proposition describing the identical business. The specificity is the substance. Where the licence itself says general trading, it is often worth amending it to the actual product categories before applying.
What gets asked for
- Hardest sub-category
- General trading with unspecified goods
- What helps
- Named products, named suppliers, named customers
- Corridors
- Origin and destination countries drive the risk assessment
- Documentation
- Bills of lading, invoices, customs declarations
- Customs code
- Expected — its absence contradicts a trading narrative
- Sanctioned goods
- Dual-use items require specific handling
Where the time goes
The file
What to put in front of them.
- Narrow the licence to the actual productsAn amendment to specific categories costs a fee and changes how the whole application is read.
- Name the counterpartiesSuppliers and customers, with contracts or purchase orders. This is the evidence that distinguishes a real trader from a shell.
- Map the corridors explicitlyWhich countries money comes from and goes to, in which currencies. Surprises here are what freeze accounts later.
- Register for a customs codeA trading company without one raises an obvious question about whether goods actually move.
- Prepare for trade finance separatelyLetters of credit and guarantees are a distinct credit application, not part of account opening.
Related
Questions
Because the licence permits almost anything, which leaves compliance unable to describe what the company does. Specific product categories solve most of it.
It is not formally required for account opening, but a trading company without one invites the question of whether goods really move.
Any corridor the bank has limited appetite for, which changes over time. Disclose them up front rather than letting them appear in transactions.
No. Trade finance facilities are a separate credit assessment, usually after a period of account history.
One question
Where will the money actually come from?
Then the account is a cross-border file, and the compliance question is which countries and in which currencies. Name the corridors in the application rather than waiting to be asked — an unexplained payment from a jurisdiction the bank did not expect is what freezes accounts in month three.
What the file has to containOr just ask usThen substance is the question rather than geography. A local trading history, an Ejari and a customer list make this straightforward; a flexi-desk with no domestic contracts yet is where onboarding slows, and the fix is evidence rather than a different bank.
Why applications get declinedOr just ask usThen source of wealth carries the file, and 'savings' is not an answer. A share sale agreement, a property disposal, audited accounts from an overseas company or a series of tax returns are. Assemble that before the first meeting, not after the first question.
Evidencing source of fundsOr just ask us