Business bank account in Finland for a foreign founder: what actually works

Published 30 September 2026

No Finnish law gives a business the right to a bank account. A bank must identify you and understand your business before it takes you on, under the Money Laundering Act, and it may turn away a customer whose information is inadequate or whose business does not fit its strategy. What helps is knowing what the bank will ask, doing things in an order that avoids a dead end, and knowing what the alternatives protect and what they do not.

What the law gives you, and what it does not

A personal account. Banks must offer a basic payment account to every private customer legally resident in an EEA country. As a rule they may refuse only for money-laundering reasons, for example when they cannot reliably verify your identity, and must give the reason in writing. This covers private use only: a business account is not a basic banking service.
Online banking codes. A bank can refuse online banking codes if you have no Finnish personal identity code or are not in the population register. It must then offer a more limited way to use the basic account.

What the bank will ask

Expect the bank to verify your identity with a passport or an identity card; each bank decides which documents it accepts. It will also ask for:

your name, address, personal identity code and nationality
whether you, a family member or a close associate hold an important public position (a politically exposed person)
where your money comes from, and your regular payments
how much you expect to pay and receive, and which foreign payments you expect and why
for the business, register extracts, a description of what it does, and other documents that show where its money comes from.

Have a short written description ready: what you sell, to whom, where the customers are, expected monthly turnover and any payments to or from abroad. A clear answer at the first meeting is faster than questions afterwards.

An order that avoids a dead end

If you live in Finland, open a personal account first. As a private customer you are entitled to a basic account, subject to the bank's identity checks. If you have a Finnish personal identity code and the bank offers online banking codes to its other customers, the account includes them, and those codes let you sign in to the business register at ytj.fi, MyTax and other e-services.
Register the company before the business account. An Oy can be founded with share capital of 0 euros. Then there is nothing to pay in, and the registration needs no receipt for paying for shares. The guided registration package at ytj.fi costs 300 euros, but only when the share capital is 0 euros, the shares have no subscription price, all shareholders are adult individuals, and the shareholders, board members and any managing director all have a Finnish personal identity code and electronic identification. In other cases, for example with share capital, a company as a shareholder or a person without a Finnish identity code, you file the start-up notification with your own documents, for 400 euros. With share capital, you add a receipt showing the shares were paid.
Then open the business account, with the register extract, the description of the business and your identity documents.

A sole trader (toiminimi) is the owner in person, so the business can start on the owner's own account; a separate account for the business keeps the books clear.

Without a Finnish identity code

The Finnish Authenticator app from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency lets a foreigner aged 18 or over without a Finnish personal identity code sign in to the public e-services that accept it, such as Suomi.fi e-Authorizations, where you can give your accountant a mandate. It is not strong electronic identification, it works only in services that have adopted it, and a bank does not have to accept it. How to approve a mandate is in our guide to Suomi.fi mandates.

Bank or payment institution

Some business accounts are offered by payment institutions or e-money institutions rather than banks. The difference matters if the provider fails.

	Bank	Payment or e-money institution
Deposit guarantee	up to 100 000 euros per depositor per bank	not covered
If the provider fails	the guarantee pays deposits	customer funds are kept separate from the provider's own

A sole trader's business and personal deposits in the same bank count as one depositor's, so they share one 100 000 euro limit. The OP Group, the POP Bank Group and the Savings Banks Group each count as one bank. A company's deposits are covered separately from its owner's.

Paying Finnish taxes without a Finnish account

You can pay Finnish taxes from a foreign account by a SEPA bank transfer, with the Tax Administration's IBAN and your reference number. You cannot pay taxes by e-invoice from a foreign account, because that is a service of banks in Finland. A company's tax refunds go to the account it gives in MyTax. For an Oy, the account number is changed in MyTax by the company's representative in the Trade Register, such as the managing director; an accountant's general mandate to manage tax affairs does not allow it.

Where we fit in

We work in English and Hindi and make the Finnish filings, including the register notifications and tax registrations that come before the bank meeting. The whole sequence for a new business is in our guide to starting a business in Finland as a foreigner. See our services.

Sources

Please note: this is general information about Finnish rules, not advice for your own situation, and the rules change. Ask us before you act on it.

Want this off your desk?

Karma Accounts is an accounting company in Finland for sole traders and small companies. We keep the bookkeeping current and file on time, and you get the amount before the due date.

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