For a new foreign-owned company, the bank account gates everything — capital can't be deposited and clients can't pay until it opens. And onboarding is exactly where foreign-owned entities stall.
Your ownership, currencies and counterparties — plus how clean your document pack is. Foreign-owned onboarding concentrates the compliance review, and a mismatch is the usual cause of delay.
Start the account in parallel with registration, get the apostilled documents and UBO disclosure right the first time, and match the bank to your structure rather than the cheapest option.
The situation in 2026: which banks work with foreign companies
Required documents for account opening
Timeline: how long does it take
RUB account vs multi-currency account
What to do if the bank refuses
Opening a bank account for a foreign-owned Russian entity is possible in 2026, but the landscape has changed significantly since 2022. Major Western-affiliated banks have exited Russia. Several Russian banks with foreign parent companies have been restructured or renamed.
The banks actively working with foreign-owned Russian entities include:
Sberbank — Russia's largest bank, works with foreign-owned LLCs, longer KYC process
VTB — state-owned, accepts foreign-owned entities with proper documentation
Gazprombank — good for energy and industrial sectors, active with Asian companies
Alfa-Bank — one of the more commercially oriented banks, faster onboarding
Tinkoff Business (T-Bank) — digital-first, works with smaller companies, faster account opening
Sovcombank — increasingly active with companies from China, Turkey and UAE
Banks from the "unfriendly countries" list — or subsidiaries of Western banks — will typically not open new accounts for foreign-owned entities. This includes entities owned by companies from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and other sanctioning jurisdictions.
2–6 weeks to open for a foreign-owned company, depending on the bank and how clean the document pack is. Full UBO disclosure required.
The account gates everything — capital deposit, client payments — and onboarding is where foreign-owned entities stall. Beginning it alongside registration, not after, is what avoids the bottleneck.
The standard document package for a foreign-owned Russian LLC to open a bank account:
Certificate of state registration (ОГРН)
Certificate of tax registration (ИНН)
Current extract from EGRN (not older than 30 days)
Charter (Articles of Association)
Decision or minutes on appointment of the director
Director's passport and registration address confirmation
Proof of legal address (lease agreement or ownership document)
Foreign parent company documents (with apostille + notarised Russian translation):
Certificate of incorporation
Pick your situation — we'll tell you the options:
Extract from commercial register (not older than 3–6 months depending on the bank)
Charter or constitutional documents
Beneficial ownership declaration — identifying all individuals who ultimately own more than 25%
Bank statement for the foreign parent (last 3–6 months) — some banks require this to assess AML risk
Banks also conduct an internal KYC interview with the director and may request additional documentation depending on the company's industry and transaction profile.
There is no single answer, because the elapsed time is decided almost entirely by document preparation rather than by the bank's internal process. Once a complete file reaches a bank that has agreed to look at it, a decision usually follows quickly. Getting to that point is where the weeks go.
Three things set the pace.
Legalisation of the parent's documents. Apostille or consular legalisation, followed by certified translation into Russian, is the longest single item and the one entirely outside the bank's control. Starting it before you have chosen a bank is the most effective thing you can do to compress the timeline.
Whether the bank will take you at all. Banks differ sharply in appetite for foreign-owned clients, and finding this out costs time if you discover it after submitting. A preliminary conversation about your ownership, jurisdiction and expected transaction profile saves more time than any document.
The KYC interview and what follows it. The director's interview may generate follow-up requests, and each round trip adds days. Answers that are consistent with the documents already filed keep the number of rounds down.
Prepare the legalised set before approaching banks, not in parallel. Have a clear, honest description of what the company will actually do and with whom — vagueness reads as risk. Approach more than one bank rather than waiting on a single answer. And expect at least one follow-up request: building it into the plan is more useful than being surprised by it.
Where an account is needed by a specific date — a first payment, a lease, a payroll run — work backwards from it and start the legalisation first. That is the item that cannot be accelerated once it has begun.
Typically two to six weeks, depending on the bank and how complete the document pack is. The main variable is the compliance review, which is heavier for foreign ownership — starting the account in parallel with registration is what stops it becoming the bottleneck.
The apostilled and translated founding documents, a clear beneficial-ownership chain, and a credible business description. Incomplete UBO disclosure or an unapostilled document is the most common reason onboarding stalls, so getting the pack right the first time matters more than speed.
Rejection is usually about fit — the bank's risk appetite for your ownership or sector — not merit. A rejected application can generally be re-routed to a bank that suits the structure, which is faster than trying to force the first one.
This guide covers which banks open accounts and what to do if one refuses. The real question is which bank fits you — because the choice shifts with sanctions and turns on your ownership, your currencies and who pays you.
Been refused, or unsure which bank fits? Tell us your ownership and payment needs — realistic options, same-day.
Practical support for international business in Russia.