Costa Rica banking

Costa Rica Banking. Corporate term deposits with high interest rates.

How to open corporate bank account in Costa Rica?

In current world, it is difficult to find reliable investment options that will be also secure. Deposits at banks are safe, but current interest rates in US or EU are lower then inflation, so somebody have to look beyond these markets to find solutions with high interest and also stable currency. In Costa Rica they have currency colon which is tided to US$, but interest rates for deposits are much higher then for US$.

In Costa Rica there are a few state-owned banks and around 10 private commercial banks. You can open personal and corporate bank account in Costa Rica in banks like CITI, Scotia Bank, etc. The majority of banks in Costa Rica offer accounts in colones or dollars, and in some cases, euros. The most important state-owned banks in Costa Rica are Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica (BCR). Private commercial banks are relatively new to Costa Rica, since only the state-owned banks could offer checking and passbook savings accounts to the public until the banking law was changed in 1995. The most popular private banks in Costa Rica are CITI, BAC San José, and ScotiaBank. HSBC was present until recently when HSBC sold their Costa Rican operations to Davivienda. There is no deposit insurance on deposits in offshore private banks, but the Costa Rican government backs the state owned banks. The private banks offer you the following advantages over the state banks, shorter lines, faster service, more English speaking staff and more agility in bringing new products and services into the market. All banks provide also certificates of deposits which have high interest rates for deposits in colones:

  • 31 días (1 mes) 4.75%
  • 2 meses 5.00%
  • 3 meses 5.75%
  • 4 meses 5.75%
  • 5 meses 5.75%
  • 6 meses 6.50%
  • 9 meses 7.25%
  • 12 meses 7.75%
  • 18 meses 8.00%
  • 24 meses 8.00%

Avia and Slogold Group S.A. can help you open a business bank account in Costa Rica without visit of the bank in person. Opening of the offshore business account is a much more time consuming, involved process than it is in the U.S. or EU for example. The paperwork, in triplicate or worse, seems never ending. These are the documents required for opening of the corporate accounts:

  1. "cedula juridicá"
  2. ID of the legal representative
  3. Receipt for a public service in name of company & additional receipt in name of legal representative
  4. Study of Company from National Registry
  5. Personería Jurídica original, must indicate that the legal rep or person with overall authority may act on behalf of the company regardless of amount "sin limite de suma"
  6. List of names of all sharehodlers.
  7. Name and positions of the members of the board of directors.
  8. Bank references

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