Articles on Offshore and Foreign Companies

What this section covers

This section collects articles for business owners and executives who are setting up or already hold a company abroad. We write about what changes in the rules and how it affects a specific company: account opening, payments, the owner’s taxes. Every article relies on primary sources: EU Council decisions, FATF and OECD publications, statements by regulators and tax authorities. We give dates in the text so you can see when the information was accurate.

Autumn 2026 brought several changes worth taking into account before you register a company. On 9 October, the EU Council updated its tax list of non-cooperative jurisdictions: it now has eight countries and territories, and Panama and Vietnam were removed from it. Since 29 January 2026, the British Virgin Islands have been on the EU list of high-risk countries for money laundering, and they remain on the FATF grey list following the plenary of 19 June 2026. The next FATF plenary takes place on 28–30 October. Ukraine has joined the CRS MCAA Addendum, and the State Tax Service of Ukraine expects to exchange extended account data from 2027.

The articles answer practical questions. How to choose a jurisdiction with the new lists in mind. Which bank to keep an account with, and why a backup account is worth having. How currency payments work, what verification of payee means in the EU and why a bank needs structured counterparty addresses. What banking risks an offshore company faces and which ideas about offshore accounts are out of date. What an owner needs to check because of the CRS and CFC rules.

Detailed guides on individual topics, from the cost of owning a company to economic substance, are collected in the knowledge base. Countries and their registration terms are on the offshore jurisdictions page, and services for opening and maintaining an account are in the banking support section. If an article does not answer your question, describe your task in the form at the bottom of the page: we will select a jurisdiction and a bank for your profile.