Obtaining banking licenses in Belize | Law&Trust International

Banking license in Belize

Obtaining banking license in Belize is related with involvement of professional lawyers. Law&Trust offers services of its specialists at cost-efficient prices. Integrated approach to solving issues allows to provide legal support to the applicant at all stages of preparation and consideration of the application form.

The main regulator of capital in the country is the Central Bank. This organization has developed two acts on financial investments, namely: BFIA and IBA. Both documents fully regulate activities of all banks, credit companies, as well as other representatives of the financial sector of the state.

Residents of Belize pay taxes at the rate of 25%, in addition they are required to make contributions in the amount of several percent of the level of turnover.

Since Belize is an offshore zone, tax conditions for non-residents of the country are significantly mitigated. The level of tax rates and other details of the jurisdiction can be clarified during individual conversation with the specialists of Law&Trust.

Requirements for banking license in Belize

List:

    • E-commerce is poorly developed in the territory of the country, therefore there should be physical office with full staff and ability to provide services to all categories of citizens. Expensive communication infrastructure should not prevent the bank from conducting online transactions with counterparties that have access to electronic banking.

     

    For majority, the type of future certificate is determined by the amount of the contributed charter capital upon obtaining license.

    It is important to note the difference in the terms of issuing the license, because the period for verifying the organization for obtaining the license of class B will be about twelve months, while obtaining the license of A class will take eighteen months.

    Depending on the facts how comprehensive is coverage of the audience by the bank and the number of services it provides, the central regulator can issue license of A or B class. The first one allows unrestricted activity with clients all over the world (at the same time, the head office remains in Belize and is obliged to maintain its operation). The certificate for B class bank implies certain restrictions. The list of services that an enterprise can provide with this permission is indicated on the license form itself. In addition, it can be clarified by specialists from Law&Trust. Legal entity of Belize should necessarily have the abbreviation "LTD" in the name. This designation corresponds to "LLC". Limited liability companies are subject to slightly different requirements than those imposed on corporations with different organizational structure.

There are different requirements for bank capital, namely: for B class license the amount of US $ 1,000,000 (US $ 15,000,000 in the case of foreign bank) is sufficient, and for A class license the amount shall be US $ 3,000,000 (US $ 25,000,000 in the case of foreign bank).

Term of banking license in Belize

The registered legal entity undergoes state verifications and is obliged to send all important accounting documents to monitor its activities by the regulator.

In view of the foregoing, there is no need to obtain new license, because the certificate is issued once and is renewed annually.

The fee is contributed both for obtaining the document and for each renewal. In order to increase the validity period of the permission, minimum package of documents and reference on payment of the fee will be required.

Verifying banking license in Belize

The regulator reserves the right to conduct unscheduled inspections of counterparties, and if the Central Bank finds out non-compliance of the organization with Belize's regulations, the license can be revoked within a short period of time.

You can clarify information about the authenticity of certain bank's certificate when registering account with the lawyers of Law&Trust International.

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