Opening a corporate bank account in Austria

The Capital Deposit Account

An Austrian GmbH cannot be entered in the Firmenbuch without proof that its share capital has been paid in. The minimum Stammkapital is EUR 10,000, of which at least EUR 5,000 — half — must be paid in cash before the notary submits the registration application, as of July 2026. That cash goes into a capital deposit account opened in the name of the company under formation. The bank issues a confirmation of the deposit, and that confirmation, not the money itself, is what the notary files with the court.

This is the step that catches founders out. The account has to exist before the company does, because the Firmenbuch entry cannot happen without the deposit confirmation. But a bank asked to open an account for an entity that does not legally exist yet will run its own checks before agreeing to do so — checks on the founders, not the company, since the company has no history to check. For a single Austrian-resident founder with a straightforward background, this is routine and handled as part of a standard formation package. For a foreign-owned applicant, particularly where the ownership chain runs through more than one jurisdiction, the bank's review of the founders can take longer than the court registration it is meant to enable. Build that into the timeline rather than assuming the deposit account is a formality.

The Operating Account After Registration

Registration in the Firmenbuch does not automatically convert the capital deposit account into a working business account. Some banks will convert the same relationship into a full operating account once the Firmenbuch extract exists; others treat the operating account as a fresh application, with its own review, sometimes at a different institution entirely. Approval for the deposit account does not guarantee approval for the operating account, and the reverse is also true — a bank that would not take on the deposit-stage relationship for a foreign-owned structure may still be willing to bank the company once it is registered, trading, and able to show a Firmenbuch extract, a business address and real turnover.

Plan for both stages separately. Do not assume the bank that accepted the deposit will automatically take on the ongoing relationship, and do not assume a bank that declines the deposit stage has ruled out the company for good.

What the Bank Requires

Austrian banks apply enhanced due diligence to a company with foreign beneficial owners under anti-money-laundering rules, and the request list is broadly the same across institutions even though the outcome is not. Expect to provide:

• Beneficial ownership — identification of every natural person who ultimately owns or controls the company, traced through any intermediate holding entities, not just the immediate shareholder of record.
• Source of funds — the documented origin of the capital being deposited and, for the operating account, the funds expected to move through it: salary, sale proceeds, a loan, prior business income.
• Business plan — what the company actually does, described specifically enough that a compliance officer with no background in the sector can follow it.
• Expected turnover — a realistic annual volume estimate, because a mismatch between the stated plan and later transaction volumes is itself a flag the bank will act on.
• Counterparties by country — who the company expects to pay and be paid by, and where those counterparties are based, since geography drives much of the bank's own risk scoring.

None of this is optional paperwork. A file that is thin on any one of these points is the most common reason a review stalls rather than concludes.

How to Open a Bank Account in Austria, Step by Step

Opening a corporate bank account in Austria runs in six steps, and the order matters because the court filing sits in the middle of it rather than at the end. A non-resident founder has no shortcut through any of them: the compliance review is the same review whether the beneficial owner lives in Vienna or outside the EU, it just takes longer when the ownership chain crosses a border.

Why Applications Get Refused

Austrian banks screen every foreign-owned applicant against the same anti-money-laundering risk factors, not against the applicant personally, and the structures that draw the most scrutiny share some combination of the following.

• Complex ownership chains — several layers of holding companies across multiple jurisdictions between the Austrian GmbH and the natural person who actually controls it, especially where one intermediate jurisdiction has weak corporate transparency requirements of its own.
• Cash-intensive activity — a business model built around cash transactions is harder to monitor after the account is open, so it is scrutinised harder before it is opened.
• Sanctioned-country exposure — any beneficial owner, director or expected counterparty connected to a sanctioned jurisdiction, even indirectly, triggers a review that most banks are not resourced to conclude quickly, if at all.
• No local substance — a company with no physical presence, no local operations and no connection to Austria beyond the registered address reads to a bank as a shell, regardless of whether that is an accurate description of the business.

These are the factors banks weigh, not a published checklist, and no institution will confirm in advance that a given structure will pass. Two banks can look at an identical file and reach different conclusions — this page describes the risk factors banks apply, not a set of rules a company can satisfy to guarantee acceptance.

After a Refusal

A refusal from one Austrian bank is not a verdict on the company, and it does not need to be treated as final.

Ask for the reason

Banks are not always willing to give a detailed explanation, but many will confirm the general category — a documentation gap, a risk-appetite decision, or a sector the bank does not bank at all — if asked directly. That distinction changes what happens next: a documentation gap is fixable, a blanket sector exclusion is not.

Re-apply with a different institution

Risk appetite varies by bank, and it varies more than applicants expect. A larger institution with a broad international client base may decline a structure that a smaller, regionally focused bank will take on, and vice versa. A second application should not repeat the first file unchanged — it should close whatever gap the first refusal actually pointed to.

Consider an EU institution that passports into Austria

A credit institution or payment institution authorised in another EU or EEA member state may offer accounts to an Austrian company under EU passporting rules, without holding a separate Austrian licence. This widens the field beyond banks physically present in Austria, though it does not remove the underlying compliance review — the same beneficial-ownership and source-of-funds questions apply.

What does not work

Reapplying at the same bank with the same file rarely changes the outcome. Neither does simplifying the ownership structure on paper without changing it in substance — banks that decline for complexity are equipped to notice when a structure has been repackaged rather than genuinely simplified, and a second refusal on those grounds is harder to reverse than the first.

EMI and Payment Institution Accounts

For the operating account, an e-money institution (EMI) or payment institution is a genuine alternative that many companies use, particularly after a bank refusal. An EMI authorised elsewhere in the EU can often onboard an Austrian company faster than a traditional bank, and is commonly used for day-to-day invoicing and payments once the company is trading.

For the capital deposit account required at formation, the position is less settled. The notary needs a confirmation that the cash contribution has actually been paid in, issued in a form the Firmenbuch will accept. Whether a given EMI's confirmation satisfies that requirement is a question for the acting notary at the time of formation, not something to assume either way — practice on this point is not uniform, and the safest approach is to confirm it with the notary before relying on an EMI for the deposit stage rather than after the fact.

Practical Notes for Remote Applicants

Most Austrian banks still expect an in-person appointment for the account holder or director, though some accept a notarised power of attorney for a representative to act instead, which is how the deposit account can typically be opened without the founder travelling to Austria for formation. Application forms are available in English at most major banks, even though the account agreement itself is usually issued in German. Build in time for document legalisation — apostilled or notarised passport copies, and often a notarised and apostilled power of attorney — since banks will not begin a compliance review on an incomplete file. For help with the wider formation process, see our guide to Austrian company formation, and for what comes after the account is open, see our guide to accounting and payroll for an Austrian company. Account-opening assistance is part of our standard service packages.