The topic, which I choose for this article is one spiny question- a small one , but which costs a lot of time and needles. If this information is helpful, I will be happy.
The procedure is opening of a bank account of a company when:
- The owner of the Bulgarian company is another company, which is a foreign legal entity or entities.
What happens usually?
The company is registered and filed in the Bulgarian trade register. The manager of the company goes in favorable bank and tries to open a bank account of the company. And the answer is “NO”. This happens because the bank policy is to reach information about the owner- an individual person who owes the whole company with all of its subsidiaries including the subsidiaries in Bulgaria.
Usually these documents ought to be represented before the Bulgarian authorities who give the permission of the registration of the Bulgarian companies. And they have electronical copy in the web site of the Bulgarian Trade register. The electronical file of the Bulgarian companies (not only the general statute) may be opened by remote access or with an electronical signature. In the majority of the cases the bank officers do not have such remote access or electronical signature. This is the reason why they can’t reach this data and they demand it by the customers.
What can you do in this situation? You may go to the Registry Agency and to ask for extracts of certified copies of the electronical file. You do not need everything. Just:
- Written statements for the decisions of the owners to start a company in Bulgaria and these decisions are taken by right people
- The translated and legalized copies of extracts from the foreign trade register, where the legal entity- owner of the Bulgarian company is registered. From this extract the bank officers may get information about who is the owner- physical person, who may manage the foreign company, who may take decisions and to represent it and who may grant rights to the Bulgarian manager. In short it is a document, which tells on what base and by whom the Bulgarian manager has his rights.
This trip to the Registry Agency may save you a lot of time, research at the last moment for another bank, which may not have such a demands without this complication, and the deception that in order to have a bank account here, you will have to issue, legalize and translate again all documents, needed for the registration of a company.
If the electronical file of the company in the Bulgarian trade register is a bit older, this is not a problem. All changes which happen in the foreign company-owner, have to be reflected in the Bulgarian trade register as well when they are main obstacles. This obligation belongs to the owners (partners) and to the manager of the Bulgarian company, so that the information in the electronical file to be actual and correct.
I hope that you will find the mentioned above information useful.
