Business, Compliance

Opening your company's bank account is a beneficial-owner problem, not a signatory one

Naming an India-based person to operate the account solves who can sign a cheque. It doesn't touch the question the bank actually has to answer for itself: who really owns and controls this company.

Your Indian company is incorporated and you need a current account to actually run it, pay vendors, receive customer payments, run payroll. The instinct is to solve this the way a signing-authority problem gets solved: give Power of Attorney to a co-founder, relative, or employee based in India, and let them operate the account. That handles who can sign. It does nothing for the separate obligation the bank itself is under, to identify and verify the individual who actually owns and controls the company, which for most NRI-founded companies is you.

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Last reviewed: 5 September 20265 min readReviewed by Preetesh Maloo, CA

The short answer

Opening a current account for your Indian company isn't just about naming an authorised signatory. Under RBI's KYC rules, the bank has to identify and verify every beneficial owner holding 10% or more of the company, and if that's you as a non-resident founder, you're treated as a high-risk customer requiring enhanced due diligence, not a quick formality. Video KYC exists, but the underlying rules are built to run it from inside India, so it isn't the reliable way to avoid travelling. The genuine remote route is getting your documents attested, by the Indian embassy or consulate where you live, a notary abroad, or an Apostille, and a separate FATCA/CRS self-certification is needed alongside it. A Power of Attorney to someone else doesn't substitute for any of this; it's yours to complete.

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Related situations

The real question isn't who can sign, it's who the bank has to verify

A Power of Attorney is a genuinely useful tool, it lets someone based in India run the account's day-to-day operations while you're abroad. What it can't do is stand in for you at the beneficial-ownership stage of KYC. The bank's obligation is to identify the individual who actually holds 10% or more of the company, verify who they are, and keep that verification current, and that obligation runs to you personally, not to whoever you've authorised to sign.

Video KYC isn't the remote shortcut it sounds like, attestation is

Video-based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP) exists and does cover a company's beneficial owners, but the rules behind it are built for someone sitting in India: the technology has to block connections from non-Indian IP addresses and capture GPS geo-tagging confirming the customer is physically in the country. That makes V-CIP a way to skip a branch visit while you're in India, not a way to complete KYC from your desk abroad.

The route that actually works without travelling is document attestation: your passport and supporting documents attested by the Indian embassy or consulate where you live, a notary public abroad, or an Apostille certificate, all established, accepted paths banks recognise for exactly this situation. On top of whichever route you use, non-resident customers are treated as a high-risk category drawing enhanced due diligence, so expect more documentation and more scrutiny either way, not a quick formality.

What goes wrong without preparing for this

The common pattern: a founder arranges Power of Attorney for a co-founder or relative, assumes the account is now someone else's problem to open, and finds weeks later that the application is stuck at the beneficial-owner and FATCA/CRS stage, the one step only the founder personally can complete. That stall lands at the worst possible time, when the company most needs to move money, pay its first vendor, receive its first customer payment, run its first payroll. Preparing the founder's own documentation alongside the POA, rather than after the account stalls, is what actually avoids the delay.

What's involved

What the CA actually does

1
We prepare your beneficial-owner and FATCA/CRS documentation upfront
Passport, Form 60 where PAN isn't available, and the FATCA/CRS self-certification, all assembled before you approach a bank, so the account isn't stalled waiting on paperwork nobody flagged in advance.
2
We get your documents genuinely attestation-ready
We line up passport and supporting-document attestation through the right channel, an Indian embassy or consulate, a notary abroad, or an Apostille, so your KYC is already in the accepted format a bank expects, rather than finding out mid-application that the format doesn't hold up.
3
We run the POA and the KYC tracks together
So your India-based signatory can start operating the account for day-to-day business as soon as it's open, while your own beneficial-owner verification is handled correctly in parallel, not left as the account's silent blocker.

What to have ready

Documents you'll typically need

Passport, and visa or OCI card if applicable, for every beneficial owner and director
FATCA/CRS self-certification for the company and its foreign beneficial owners
PAN, or Form 60 where a foreign beneficial owner doesn't have one
The company's incorporation certificate, MOA/AOA, and the board resolution authorising the account and naming the operating signatory

References on this page

RBI's KYC Master Direction: a company account requires identifying and verifying every beneficial owner holding 10% or more of shares, capital, or voting rights, using an Officially Valid Document (a passport, for a foreign national) and PAN, or Form 60 where PAN isn't available
Video-based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP), permitted under the KYC Master Direction for a company's beneficial owners and signatories, but built to run with the customer physically located in India (the infrastructure is required to block non-Indian IP addresses and capture GPS geo-tagging within India), so it isn't a reliable way to complete KYC purely from abroad
The established remote route for a non-resident's KYC documents: attestation by the Indian embassy or consulate in the country of residence, a notary public abroad, an overseas branch of an Indian bank, or an Apostille certificate under the Hague Convention
Non-resident customers are separately treated as a high-risk category requiring enhanced due diligence under RBI's KYC framework, regardless of which route is used to complete the verification
FATCA/CRS self-certification: a separate declaration collected from the company and its foreign beneficial owners under India's tax-information-exchange commitments, alongside, not instead of, beneficial-ownership KYC
A Power of Attorney authorises someone to operate the account day to day; it does not satisfy the bank's own obligation to verify the beneficial owner behind the company

Frequently asked questions

Common questions

The POA lets that person operate the account day to day, but it doesn't complete the bank's own beneficial-owner KYC on you. That verification is yours to complete, in person or through attested documents, regardless of who else is authorised to sign.

Not if you use document attestation, through the Indian embassy or consulate where you live, a notary abroad, or an Apostille certificate. Video KYC exists too, but it's built to run with the customer physically in India, so it isn't the remote option it's sometimes assumed to be.

It's whoever ultimately holds 10% or more of the company, which for most NRI-founded companies is the founder personally. The bank has to identify and verify that person directly; naming a different director or signatory doesn't change who the beneficial owner is.

It's a separate declaration the bank collects to meet India's tax-information-exchange commitments, alongside, not instead of, the beneficial-ownership KYC.

The exceptions that change the answer

Where the general rule stops applying to you

Every rule below has a carve-out, a cut-off date or a condition that flips the answer. These are the ones that decide real cases.

Power of Attorney executed abroad: the stamping clock

Right now: Stamped in India within 3 months of receipt in India

Where it works differently

The country is a Hague Apostille Convention member: Notarise locally, then apostille. Otherwise it needs attestation by the Indian mission.; Two different routes; using the wrong one means a rejected document at the sub-registrar.
The 3 months lapse: Penalty stamping is required and the document may be questioned. Sub-registrars do check the receipt date.; Indian Stamp Act.
The PoA is meant to transfer the property itself: It cannot. A GPA does not convey title, per Suraj Lamp (SC, 2011). A PoA authorises someone to ACT for you, not to receive your property.; The commonest and costliest misunderstanding.

Commonly got wrong

A PoA can be used to sell the property to the holder. Suraj Lamp held GPA sales convey nothing. A PoA lets an agent act for you; it does not transfer ownership to them.A Power of Attorney lets someone sign on your behalf. It does not transfer the property to them. Only a registered sale deed does that.

India's automatic exchange of financial account information

Right now: FATCA in force: Indian banks and funds report US persons' accounts to the IRS via India's Form 61B channel

Where it works differently

A US-citizen or green-card-holder NRI holds an Indian bank or mutual-fund account: The account is reported to the IRS under FATCA even though the person files Indian returns as an NRI. It is dual reporting, not either/or.; FATCA reporting turns on US-person status, independent of Indian residential status.

Commonly got wrong

CRS covers the US too, so a US-based NRI is exchanged under CRS. The US is not a CRS participant. US persons are caught only under FATCA.A UK, UAE or Canada NRI is reported under CRS; a US-person NRI is reported under FATCA.

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Setting up your Indian company's bank account from abroad?

Tell us how your ownership and signatories are structured. A practising CA will get your beneficial-owner documents genuinely attestation-ready, sort the FATCA/CRS declaration, and keep the account from stalling, on a free call, no obligation.

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