The jurisdiction chosen before incorporation, banked in 3 weeks post-licence

The founder's initial instinct, based on cost and speed of incorporation, pointed toward a jurisdiction with cheap, fast company formation but a licensing regime that correspondent banks routinely treat with caution, which would have made the banking step much harder later regardless of how clean the file was.

The real constraint was not the licence itself but which regimes the founder's target banking partners would recognise without additional scrutiny. Two of the three jurisdictions on the founder's shortlist would have required extra evidentiary work at the banking stage.

Jurisdiction and structure type only. We never name the institutions involved.

• 1

  We advised on a jurisdiction whose licensing regime is recognised by banks without extra scrutiny at the banking stage, even though it meant a slightly longer and costlier licensing process upfront.

• 2

  We sequenced licensing before incorporation formalities were finalized, so the entity structure matched what the regulator and the eventual banking partner would both expect.

• 3

  We prepared the banking application in parallel with the final stage of licensing, so account opening could begin the day the licence was granted rather than starting the search from zero.

Jurisdiction chosen first; licence granted; banking followed in three weeks.