Corporate banking
Getting the account open, and keeping it.
Why applications are declined, what the file has to contain, which banks suit which business, and what to do when an account is frozen or closed without an explanation.
Before the list
The file decides it, not the bank.
Founders spend weeks choosing between institutions and days assembling the application, which is the wrong way round. Somewhere inside every bank a compliance officer has to write down why this company is being onboarded and what its money is expected to do. If they can write that sentence, the account opens. If they cannot, no amount of choosing the right bank helps.
That officer will never meet you, and the relationship manager who does cannot overturn them. So the objective is not rapport — it is handing the manager a file that compliance can approve without asking anything. Every question that comes back costs a week, and a file generating four rounds of questions starts to look like a file that is hiding something, even when it is merely disorganised.
Getting the account open
The file decides the outcome far more often than the choice of bank does. These cover what compliance is actually assessing, why applications fail, and what to do when an account is frozen or closed.
By company type
A mainland company with an Ejari and domestic customers is a very different application from an offshore vehicle with no premises. The structure you chose at incorporation shapes the banking conversation more than anything you do afterwards.
By sector
Banks have appetites by sector, and those appetites change. Trading and virtual assets attract the most scrutiny; consultancies have the opposite problem of too little to evidence.
Products beyond the account
FX spreads, letters of credit, SME lending and card acceptance — where the costs are embedded rather than charged, and where a personal guarantee turns a corporate borrowing into a personal one.
Next step
Not sure which of these applies to you?
Describe the situation in two lines. We will tell you which of these you actually need and which you can ignore.
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