Opening a bank account in Qatar

Qatar runs two rulebooks side by side. The central bank instructs the institutions it licenses; companies established in the financial centre deal with banks under the separate rules of its regulatory authority. The two were written independently and land in the same place on the question a company account turns on: the owner a bank must find holds a fifth.

Everything else we handle in the country sits on the Qatar page; for the account elsewhere, see bank account opening.

Where the line is drawn

For a corporation, the beneficial owner is an individual who directly or indirectly owns or controls at least 20% of the shares or voting rights, and equally one who controls its management by any other route. The definition then leaves shareholding behind: for the account itself, anyone on whose instructions the signatories are accustomed to act is a beneficial owner too, whether or not a share stands in that name.

Ten per cent, if the company is a joint stock

A second and lower figure applies to how the company itself is described. Where the customer is a joint stock company, a bank obtains the names and addresses of shareholders whose shares exceed 10% of capital. An individual institution gives the owner's name and address; a joint venture, the partners'. These identify the entity and sit beside the ownership test.

Every level of the structure, written down

Where a company has a multi-layered ownership and control structure, a bank must obtain and document that structure at each level. A group described only by its top and its bottom does not meet this, and the levels between are where applications here usually stop. An unincorporated partnership adds a further requirement: all partners or directors are identified and verified, with no threshold to hide behind.

How a bank satisfies itself the company is real

The latest accounts

For an established company, the latest financial statements, audited where they exist.

Proof it was never wound up

A search establishing the entity has not been dissolved, struck off, wound up or terminated.

A register nobody in the deal controls

Public corporate registers, private databases or independent sources such as lawyers and accountants.

A reference, a call or a visit

Prior bank references, contact by telephone, post or email, and a visit where that is practical.

The figures that switch the checks on

Checks that finish after the account opens

Verification may be completed later, on four stated conditions: the delay is necessary so that normal business is not interrupted, the risk is small and effectively managed, the checks finish as soon as practicable, and the institution holds written conditions governing what a customer may do meanwhile. The regulator can ask it to justify the delay. Where checks cannot be completed at all, the relationship ends immediately.

The year an account may sit still

A current account with no drawing or depositing activity, whose holder cannot be traced after every available contact has been used, is dormant after one Gregorian year. Savings accounts get two years, time deposits five. Ten years after the last transaction the balance moves to an unclaimed balances account, and accrued sums pass every three months to the state authority holding them.

Sources: the twenty per cent test, the 10% shareholder rule, structure at each level, QR 50,000 and QR 3,500 — the central bank's AML/CFT instructions and the financial centre's AML/CFT rules; dormancy — instructions to banks, part VII.