Opening a Bank Account for a Foreign-Owned Company in Kenya: What Banks Actually Ask For

A newly incorporated, foreign-owned Kenyan company usually expects the bank account to be the easy part. It rarely is. The documents a bank asks for are not arbitrary internal policy, they flow directly from Kenya’s anti-money laundering law, including its beneficial ownership rules, and knowing which requirement comes from where helps you prepare the file properly the first time instead of shuttling back and forth with the branch.

The Documents the Law Actually Requires

Section 45 of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act requires a bank, as a reporting institution, to identify and verify any applicant seeking to open an account. For a body corporate, section 45(1A)(b) specifies the record the bank must obtain: evidence of registration or incorporation and a corporate resolution authorising a person to act on the company’s behalf, together with a copy of the company’s latest annual return filed under the law governing it. For a newly incorporated company that has not yet filed an annual return, the statute still lists the annual return, so ask the bank early how it treats a return that does not yet exist.

Section 45(3) adds a further check: the bank must verify that anyone purporting to act on the company’s behalf, whoever signs the account-opening forms, is actually authorised to do so. This is exactly why the board resolution matters as much as the certificate of incorporation itself.

Beneficial Ownership: Why It Comes Up Twice

You will be asked about beneficial ownership at two separate points, for two separate reasons. Section 93A of the Companies Act, 2015 requires every company to keep a register of its beneficial owners and, for a newly incorporated company, to lodge a copy with the Registrar at the time of incorporation. Separately, where an applicant appears to act on behalf of another person, section 45(4) of POCAMLA requires the bank to take reasonable measures to identify and verify the beneficial owner using information from a reliable source. Section 45(4) does not name the section 93A register, but it is a natural source, so banks commonly ask for it, and a company that has not properly completed its beneficial ownership register at incorporation will find the bank account application stalling on the same gap.

The KRA PIN Requirement

Section 12 of the Tax Procedures Act, read with item 11 of the First Schedule, makes “opening accounts with financial institutions and investment banks” a transaction for which a KRA PIN is required. For a Kenyan company this is usually straightforward: confirm that the company’s own PIN has been issued before you approach the bank.

There is a separate, narrow exemption for non-residents. Section 12(5B) of the Tax Procedures Act exempts a non-resident person from the PIN requirement when opening an account with an investment bank or a financial institution. It does not help a Kenyan-resident company, which needs its own PIN for its business account.

Signatories: Where Practice Goes Beyond the Statute

POCAMLA does not name a nationality or residency requirement for a company’s bank signatories. What it does require is risk-based due diligence. Section 45(5) directs the bank, in deciding what counts as reasonable measures, to have regard to all the circumstances and in particular to whether the applicant is based or incorporated in a country with applicable anti-money laundering provisions in force (a list the Cabinet Secretary may gazette under section 45(6)) and to any custom or practice current in the relevant field of business. A signatory who is never in Kenya, cannot be reached locally, and holds no Kenyan identification naturally pushes a bank’s own risk assessment higher, and each bank sets its own internal threshold for what additional evidence it wants in response. This is why, in practice, banks often ask for a Kenyan-resident signatory or at least a local point of contact, even though no single section of POCAMLA states that requirement in those words. Expect this to vary between banks and to be applied more strictly for a company in a higher-risk sector such as payments or lending.

Practical Causes of Delay

The recurring reasons a foreign-owned company’s account opening drags on are rarely exotic: a board resolution that does not match the signatories actually presented at the branch, a beneficial ownership register that was never properly completed at incorporation, or a foreign parent company whose own incorporation documents have not been apostilled or notarised to the bank’s satisfaction. Assembling the section 45 file, the section 93A beneficial ownership register, and the company’s KRA PIN certificate before the first branch visit resolves most of what otherwise becomes a multi-week back and forth.

Frequently asked questions

Does the law require a Kenyan bank account signatory to be resident in Kenya?
No statute states that requirement directly. It follows from each bank’s own risk-based customer due diligence under section 45 of POCAMLA, which varies by bank and by sector.

Can we open a company account before the beneficial ownership register is filed?
In practice, banks increasingly ask for it upfront, since it is a natural source for the beneficial owner information that section 45(4) of POCAMLA requires them to obtain. File it as part of incorporation rather than treating it as a later formality.

Do all our directors need individual KRA PINs to open the company account?
The company itself needs a PIN, so confirm it has been issued before the branch visit. A non-resident director does not personally need a PIN to open a personal account with a financial institution, under section 12(5B) of the Tax Procedures Act, but banks may still ask for other identification.

Why did our bank ask for documents that aren’t mentioned in POCAMLA at all?
Section 45 sets a floor, not a ceiling. Banks are entitled to apply stricter internal policies on top of the statutory minimum, particularly for higher-risk applicants.

This article is general information on Kenyan law as at its publication date, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an advocate and client relationship.