Which jurisdiction should I open or purchase a bank in?

[Helkins]

Hello

I have been lurking the forum for quite a while now and want to move towards setting up my own bank, which jurisdiction would you say is best, most reputable and cheapest to get the banking license in? I'm running a decent size payment services and crypto on-ramp off-ramp operations for couple years now, want to scale it up.

Was looking initially at Comoros but with all the confusion whether it's fake or not I don't want to be taking a gamble.

Thank you

 

[W Fish]

Hello

I have been lurking the forum for quite a while now and want to move towards setting up my own bank, which jurisdiction would you say is best, most reputable and cheapest to get the banking license in? I'm running a decent size payment services and crypto on-ramp off-ramp operations for couple years now, want to scale it up.

Was looking initially at Comoros but with all the confusion whether it's fake or not I don't want to be taking a gamble.

Thank you

Why? -> how do you plan to make money with banking?
Where is you market? Doubt you will attract much deposit in EU with some exotic island licence.

 

[Sols]

April 1st was on Tuesday...

I have been lurking the forum for quite a while now and want to move towards setting up my own bank, which jurisdiction would you say is best, most reputable and cheapest to get the banking license in?

EU. Minimum share capital for a standard bank license is just five million EUR. One—two million if you go for a special bank license where available (such as Lithuania). As long as your business plan is reasonable, they often won't ask for a higher amount than the 5 or 1-2 million EUR figure.

It's hard to beat. Most other good and reputable places have higher minimums, ranging from 2x to 1000x the EU requirement.

On paper, places like Cayman Islands and BVI, which are quite reputable while being notorious tax havens, have requirements of 1 million or less. But when you approach the regulator and discuss licensing, the easy days are over and they expect to see capital similar to EU/UK/US if you plan to run a traditional banking model.

After that you're left with Dominica, Saint Lucia, and so on. Quite sure you can still get a license for under a million there for international/non-resident banking activities.