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If your business receives payments from clients in different countries, keeping track of incoming transfers gets complicated quickly. You end up juggling account details, chasing payment references, and matching transfers to invoices by hand. A virtual IBAN can simplify that. It's an extra IBAN linked to a main account, which lets you receive payments for different clients, currencies, or markets without opening a new bank account each time. If your clients are in Europe, parts of the Middle East, or elsewhere that uses IBANs, they probably pay that way already. This guide covers how to open a virtual IBAN account online, what documents you'll need, how to use it day to day, and the checks that matter most when you choose a provider, including one that's become more important since 2025. New to IBANs? Our guide explains what an IBAN is and why it matters for international payments, and our IBAN vs SWIFT code explainer covers the difference between the two. This guide is based on research conducted in October 2026, using the European Banking Authority's report on virtual IBANs, EU legislation on EUR-Lex, Pay.UK, and each provider's own website. 7 Steps to Open a Virtual IBAN Account Online In most cases, you don't apply for a virtual IBAN on its own. You open a business or payment account, and once it's approved, you request one or more IBANs, if the provider offers them. The exact process varies, but it usually follows these steps. Step 1: Decide Which Account Type You Need Virtual IBANs are usually offered with business accounts, not personal accounts. If you invoice clients or get paid under a company name, a business account is usually the right fit. A business account is usually right if: you run a registered company you want to receive payments in your business name you want to keep business and personal finances separate you manage payments across several clients, markets, or teams A personal account can work if you're a freelancer or sole trader paid in your own name. As your business grows, mixing personal and business money can complicate your tax reporting and cash flow. Step 2: Check Your Eligibility Check this before you compare features, because it rules out more providers than anything else. Providers assess: where your company is incorporated your business type, such as a limited company or sole trader where your directors and major shareholders live Some popular providers only accept companies registered in certain countries. bunq, for example, only opens business accounts for companies registered in nine EU countries, and Revolut Business doesn't list Hong Kong among its eligible countries. Step 3: Choose the Right Provider Compare these first: whose name the account details are in: your company's, or a provider's pooled account (see the next section) whether IBANs come with the account or must be requested separately which currencies you can receive in locally, not just hold which payment routes work: SEPA (the EU's euro payment system), SEPA Instant, or only SWIFT, the slower international network whether the provider is a bank or a licensed payment institution, and how it safeguards your money Not every "virtual account" is an IBAN. Some providers give you local receiving details instead, such as a sort code and account number in the UK or a BSB number in Australia. These work within one country's payment system and are just as useful there, but they aren't IBANs. Step 4: Gather Your Documents Requirements vary, but most providers ask for identity, address, and business details. For a business account, you'll usually need: proof of identity for directors and ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs), the people who ultimately own or control the company your certificate of incorporation or business registration documents proof of address, where required documents showing ownership and control, such as a shareholder register or constitution a short description of your business activities your expected transaction volumes and where payments will come from New businesses, or those in higher-risk industries, are often asked for more, such as invoices, contracts, or a website. For a personal account, you'll usually need a government-issued photo ID, a selfie or live identity check, proof of address, and tax details where relevant. Important: if someone else submits the application for your business, the provider may ask for proof that they're authorised to act for the company. Step 5: Submit Your Application Online Complete the online form and upload your documents. Check that names, addresses, and company details match across the form and every document. Inconsistencies are a common cause of follow-up questions. Step 6: Verify Your Identity and Get Approved Most providers then run an identity check: a selfie, a video call, a mobile confirmation, or extra business checks. Simple applications may be approved within a few business days. Complex ownership structures, higher-risk industries, or missing documents take longer. Step 7: Request or Activate Your IBANs Once approved, check whether your IBANs are included automatically or need requesting from your dashboard. Confirm the details shown, including the account name, before you send them to clients. Why "Whose Name Is It In?" Matters More Since 2025 Your clients' banks now check who they're paying. Since 9 October 2025, banks and payment providers in the euro area must verify the payee's name before a euro credit transfer is sent, under the EU's Instant Payments Regulation. This is called Verification of Payee. Payment providers in EU countries outside the euro area must follow by 9 July 2027. When your client enters your name and IBAN, their bank checks them against the account and shows the result:

At a Glance

Before you pick a jurisdiction, here's the most important thing to understand: the tax rate is the least important number on this list. Strange for a guide about tax havens? The founders whose structures work aren't the ones who found the lowest rate. They're the ones who asked the right questions before signing anything. Can I open a corporate bank account here without flying out? Will clients accept invoices from this address? What will staying compliant cost me each year? Get those answers wrong, and your 0% jurisdiction quietly becomes your most expensive business decision. This guide ranks 10 jurisdictions on what those questions come down to: banking access, remote incorporation, compliance burden, and international credibility. The rankings draw on Statrys' experience supporting over 10,000 clients and helping incorporate over 1,600 companies, so they reflect what works in practice, not just on paper. How to Choose: A Framework for Founders Most founders pick a jurisdiction and then discover the problems. Here's a better sequence: answer these four questions first, then pick the jurisdiction. What Income Does the Tax Rate Actually Apply To? The headline rate is almost never the full story. Hong Kong's 0% offshore rate only applies to profits sourced outside Hong Kong, while local trading profits are taxed at 8.25% to 16.5% under the rules set by Hong Kong's Inland Revenue Department. Passive income is stricter still. Since 2023, under Hong Kong's foreign-sourced income exemption (FSIE) regime, dividends, interest, IP income, and disposal gains that a company in a multinational group receives in Hong Kong are taxable unless it meets an economic substance, nexus, or participation test. Singapore works the other way round. Its flat 17% sounds expensive until you see the start-up exemptions that cut your effective rate in the first three years, but foreign income you bring into Singapore is generally taxable. Under the main exemption, foreign dividends, branch profits, and service income can be exempt if they were subject to tax abroad in a country with a headline rate of at least 15%. Other foreign income may qualify for narrower exemptions or foreign tax credits. So before you compare rates, work out what kind of income you'll earn, and where. Can You Actually Open an Offshore Bank Account There? This is the question that collapses more offshore structures than anything else. Hong Kong and Singapore have the most accessible banking for non-residents, including digital options. Switzerland, Luxembourg, BVI, and the Cayman Islands are hard at traditional banks: most require in-person visits or documentation that many founders simply can't produce remotely, although some payment providers, including Statrys, also accept BVI companies. What Does Staying Compliant Actually Cost? Annual government fees range from nothing in the Netherlands and Switzerland, which charge no annual registry fee, to USD 2,095 or more in Bermuda, where the fee rises with a company's capital. But they're usually the smaller part of the bill. What you'll pay for depends on the jurisdiction: Minimal requirements: some jurisdictions need almost nothing beyond a local agent. Local presence and filings: others require a local director, a registered office, annual audited accounts, and ongoing government filings. Economic substance: the 0% holding havens add substance rules too. BVI and the Cayman Islands both treat holding companies as a relevant activity under their economic substance laws. Provider fees for a company secretary, registered agent, registered address, nominee director, or audit come on top. In most jurisdictions, those annual costs end up matching or exceeding the initial setup cost. Each jurisdiction below lists its official government fees to set up and to keep running, so add it all up before you commit. Will Your Home Country Tax It Anyway? This is the question most tax haven lists skip. Many countries have controlled foreign company (CFC) rules, which the OECD describes as rules that "prevent taxpayers from shifting income into foreign subsidiaries" (OECD BEPS Action 3). If your country has them and you control the company, its low-taxed profits can be taxed at home as if you'd earned them yourself. Where the company is managed from matters too. A company run day to day by a founder living in a high-tax country can end up tax resident there, whatever its registration says. US citizens face the strictest version: they stay subject to US tax and reporting on worldwide income wherever they live. Most jurisdictions on this list also take part in the OECD's automatic exchange of financial information, so your home tax authority may receive data about your foreign accounts. Check your home country's rules with a tax adviser before you incorporate, not after. Comparison at a Glance