iGaming & betting · Banking & EMI
A closed operator account, and the owners re-banked in the Alps, in 35 days
A licensed iGaming operator had its corporate bank account closed when the bank made a policy decision to exit gambling clients entirely. Payroll, supplier payments and player settlement all ran through that one account, so the closure did not slow the business down, it stopped it. Two further banks declined the replacement application on the same category grounds before the operator reached us.
The closure carried a second, quieter problem. The beneficial owners drew dividends into personal accounts at the same banking group, and those personal relationships were now under review as well, so the people behind the business were about to be de-banked alongside it.
What was actually brokenThe corporate closure was a category decision, not a conduct one. The licence was valid throughout and the account history was clean; the bank simply no longer wanted gambling exposure, and the two follow-on declines came from banks with the same blanket policy, so more applications of the same kind would keep failing.
The owners' personal banking was exposed for the same reason. Holding operating cash and personal wealth inside one banking group meant a single institutional policy change threatened both at once, with no separation between business risk and the owners' own money.
The route we placedJurisdiction and structure type only. We never name the institutions involved.
- 1
We re-banked the operating company with an EMI whose stated appetite explicitly covers licensed gambling, evidenced by an existing book of similar operators, rather than a generalist bank being asked to make an exception.
- 2
We opened private banking relationships for the beneficial owners in a discreet Alpine jurisdiction, deliberately separate from the operating institution, so the owners' personal wealth no longer shared a single point of failure with the business.
- 3
We documented the licence, source of funds and AML posture once, in a form both the operating EMI and the private bankers could underwrite, so the two placements reinforced rather than repeated each other.
From a closed operator account to the company and its owners both banked, deliberately apart.
Week 1
Exposure audit
Mapped the operating cash flow and the owners' personal exposure to the same banking group, and shortlisted a gambling-aware EMI and an Alpine private-banking route.
Week 2-3
Operating company re-banked
Placed the operating company with a gambling-aware EMI and restored payroll, supplier and settlement flows.
Week 4-5
Owners banked privately
Opened private banking relationships for the beneficial owners in an Alpine jurisdiction, separate from the operating account, live by day 35.
- Prior position
- Corporate account closed, 2 replacement declines
- Time to fully banked
- 35 days
- Structure
- Operating EMI, plus private UBO accounts in the Alps
- Separation
- Business and owners no longer share one institution
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