Introduction - We can open Guatemalan bank accounts in one working day. We only need a passport and driver's license, notarized, scanned, and sent to our email (Contact). We offer both private banking and trust agreement banking.

Documents Required - We do require that you send us a notarized copy of your passport, but if you do not have a driver's license another government-issued ID with photo is acceptable. If you are not currently in a country that has public notaries or this will be difficult for you, you may have a lawyer or barrister stamp the documents. The scans must be sent as jpg or 300 dpi jpeg files.

This is a quick and easy process that can be done in just a few hours. Once completed, we will open your account.

Documents NOT Required - We will never ask for any kind of reference letter, bills, or anything other than the IDs we have just explained. These days reference letters are being looked upon as suspicious transactions and we would not put any client in that vulnerable position. None of the documents need to be stamped or signed by any government agency or employee.

Trust Agreement Banking - Trust Agreement Banking requires an additional step that private banking (see below) does not; our law firm enters into a Trust Agreement with the client. This is necessary because in this scenario the law firm is the signatory on the account. The bank will not know who you are at all and your name will not appear in any bank records. The main benefit of this is the privacy and protection. If a government were to inquire about the account, they would only get the name of the law firm. To get the information from the law firm they would have to go to court here in Guatemala and fight to get us to break attorney client privilege. They would not win unless there was evidence against you. Further, this evidence would have to be of a crime that is also a criminal offense in Guatemala.

A foreign prosecuting attorney would only be able to testify in court if the waive diplomatic immunity, something they are loathe to do because if they do, they can then be tried in court for perjery or numerous other crimes. Guatemalan judges realize that foreign attorneys are not always going to be honest in court.

The recent OECD treaties only deal with bank secrecy, not attorney client privilege. They are not in any tax information sharing agreements or mutual legal assistance treaties. Guatemala only shares information in the case of a major criminal offense (nothing tax related). If there's no proof, no information is given. This is by far the best way to bank in the world today.

We must know who you are because we are assuming liability by letting you use our attorney-client trust account. This is also a good way to break the paper trail. If you send the money to one of our attorney-client trust accounts for us to then send to your own corporate or private account, your account number and/or corporate name are concealed. If one were to inquire what the wire was for, you could answer, "Attorney-Client Privilege."

There is online banking and you can have a Visa card as well as an ATM card. For this reason, there is a fee of 3% of all incoming funds. It is a one time fee that occurs each time money is received into the bank account. The price is $2,000 for the Trust Agreement.

If you will also be forming a corporation with us, we will open a corporate account for you with the law firm as the signatory on the account and, if you would like, as the beneficiary owner. You are granted power of attorney over the corporation. The price for this is $6,000 total and the 3% fee also applies.

For both options, coming to Guatemala is not necessary.

Private Banking - We also offer personal bank accounts and corporate bank accounts with you as the signatory on the account. The bank will know who you are so this option provides less protection.

The Guatemala Corporation - Guatemalan bearer share corporations are anonymous. Whoever has the actual stock certificates is the owner of the corporation. While the corporation is formed, we can open the corporate bank account in the same name. There are no taxes on offshore-derived income nor capital gains from bank interest or the stock market.

You will get all of the paperwork in the mail after the process is complete.

The Guatemala Bank - We use multiple Guatemalan banks, all of them having billions of dollars in assets. They all have online banking with the capability of sending international bank wires. Accounts can be in Euros or Dollars. They issue secured Visa cards and debit cards in which your name is not on the card. The Visa card's deposit is 130% of the credit line. This amount will remain untouched as long as you keep the card plus 30 days. Payments are made from your regular account.

This card works anywhere that Visa works, all around the world. We mail the cards to you by courier anywhere in the world.

Guatemala Banking and Business Environment - Guatemala respects the right to privacy and protection of assets. They do not harbor criminals and will cooperate with another nation of you are being tried, and there is evidence against you, of a crime with a victim such as homicide, fiduciary fraud, kidnapping, etc. They do not cooperate with other nations for civil cases, in any circumstances, including tax only issues and money laundering cases. This also means you are protected from frivolous litigation.

Many countries will trump up charges and call them money laundering, but this doesn't work in Guatemala because of the principle of dual criminality--the charge must be considered criminal in Guatemala to get the government to cooperate. Further, the country must present proof of the crime, not just an allegation and the cute way of saying "But we could get evidence on this guy if we could just have access to the records..." That doesn't fly.

How to Order - Feel free to call or email us with any other questions you may have and kindly use our order form to place orders

http://www.guatemalalaw.org