How to Open a Bank Account for Your Romanian SRL in 2026: The Complete Guide for Foreign Founders
A Romanian company has always needed a bank account as a matter of commercial necessity. Until 2026 it did not need one as a matter of law. That has changed, and the change carries a deadline and a penalty.
Law No. 239/2025, in force from 18 December 2025, requires every Romanian legal entity to hold at least one payment account, with either a credit institution or the State Treasury, in Romania. A newly incorporated company must open the account within 60 business days of registration. Failure carries fines of RON 3,000 to RON 10,000 and exposes the company to classification as fiscally inactive, a status which cancels its VAT registration, obstructs filings at the Trade Register and begins a twelve month period at the end of which ANAF is obliged to apply for the company's dissolution.
For a founder who has incorporated a Romanian SRL remotely, this presents a practical difficulty. Romanian banks apply rigorous customer due diligence, most branches operate in Romanian, and the documentary requirements for non-resident shareholders are appreciably heavier than for domestic clients. This guide sets out what the banks require, what the process involves, how long it takes, and where it commonly fails.
What the Law Requires
The obligation derives from Article III of Law No. 239/2025, which amends the Fiscal Procedure Code. Every Romanian legal entity, whether an SRL, a joint stock company or a branch, must maintain at least one payment account with a credit institution or with the Treasury in Romania. For entities in existence when the law took effect, the obligation was immediate. For companies incorporated afterwards, the period is 60 business days from registration at the Trade Register.
The sanction is not confined to the fine. Classification as fiscally inactive has consequences that compound: the VAT identification code is cancelled while the obligation to account for VAT remains, input VAT ceases to be deductible, registry operations may be refused, and the company's fiscal record is annotated in a manner visible to banks, counterparties and public authorities.
The practical consequence is that the bank account is no longer a matter to be attended to when the company first needs to receive a payment. It is an obligation with a fixed deadline, and the process should be commenced on receipt of the Registration Certificate.
Where the Lawyer's Mandate Ends and Attendance Begins
A Romanian company is incorporated without a notary. The constitutional documents are signed by the shareholders, wherever they are, and the instructing lawyer attests to their identity, to the content of the documents and to the date of signature before lodging the file with the Trade Register. That attestation, given under a legal assistance contract, is what dispenses with notarisation.
Banks accept a lawyer's mandate for the preparatory stage of the account opening. The application and the supporting documentation can be signed and submitted on the company's behalf under an împuternicire avocățială, without any notarial act and without the director being in Romania. The file is assembled, the correspondence conducted in Romanian, and the institution's questions answered by the lawyer.
What the mandate cannot supply is the bank's relationship with the director as an identified person. Romanian banks ordinarily open a personal account for the director first and the company account afterwards. The sequence is not an administrative preference. Customer due diligence under Law No. 129/2019 attaches to the individual who will operate the account, and the personal account is the instrument through which that individual becomes a client of the bank. Once the relationship exists, the corporate onboarding proceeds on a foundation already laid.
This is where citizenship becomes decisive. A citizen of a Member State can ordinarily complete the personal onboarding without attending, because the identity document is one the bank can verify directly, and because access to a basic payment account is a right conferred on consumers resident in the Union by Directive 2014/92/EU. That right belongs to the individual rather than to the company, and a bank remains free to decline a corporate client on risk grounds whatever the shareholders' nationality. But the personal account is the gateway, and for a Member State citizen the gateway opens without a journey.
A citizen of a third state is in a different position at precisely this point. The personal account requires identification the bank cannot complete remotely, which means attendance at a branch, and the corporate account follows once that relationship is in place. One visit ordinarily serves for both.
The qualification is a Romanian residence permit. A third country national holding one is treated on the same footing as a Member State citizen, because the permit supplies a Romanian identity document the bank can verify directly. The basis of the permit is immaterial: a digital nomad visa, an investor permit, a work permit or family reunification each suffice.
Two practical consequences follow. Where attendance will be required, the visit should be arranged while the file is under compliance review rather than after approval, so that the personal and corporate onboarding can be completed in a single day. And a founder who intends in any event to apply for a Romanian residence permit may wish to settle the order of the two applications at the outset, since a permit obtained before the banking stage removes the need to travel at all.
Documents Required
Romanian banks conduct customer due diligence under Law No. 129/2019, which transposes the European anti money laundering directives. The requirements for a company with foreign shareholders are more extensive than for a domestic entity.
For an SRL with non-resident individual shareholders, banks ordinarily require the Registration Certificate showing the CUI and registry number; the constitutional documents as filed; a Trade Register extract, which some banks accept in the form issued on incorporation while others require one not older than 30 days; the specimen signature declaration of the director; valid passports or national identity documents for all shareholders and directors; a description of the intended business, identifying the client base, expected transaction volumes, currencies and counterparty jurisdictions; a statement as to the origin of the share capital and of initial working funds; and beneficial ownership information.
Where a shareholder is a body corporate, the bank will additionally require the parent's certificate of incorporation, a certificate of good standing, evidence of its own ownership chain sufficient to identify the ultimate beneficial owner, a board resolution authorising the opening of the Romanian account, and apostilled or legalised copies of all foreign documents accompanied by certified Romanian translations.
Some institutions also ask for tax residence certificates, evidence of the registered office, and the power of attorney described above.
Requirements vary between banks and, in practice, between branches of the same bank. At least one round of supplementary questions should be anticipated.
The Process
Selecting the bank. Romanian banks differ materially in their appetite for foreign owned companies. Some maintain departments dedicated to non-resident clients, with English speaking staff and established procedures for apostilled documentation. Others are configured for domestic retail and small business clients and handle foreign passports, legalised documents and multi-tier ownership structures with difficulty. The choice of institution is the single factor with the greatest bearing on how long the process takes.
Assembling the file. Foreign documents should be apostilled, or legalised where the issuing state is not party to the Hague Convention, and accompanied by certified Romanian translations. The file should be submitted complete. Incomplete submissions are the principal cause of delay.
Verification of the beneficial owner. Most banks require direct contact with the beneficial owner or the director. Some require attendance at a branch in Romania. Others accept video verification conducted through their own platform or a third party provider. A number will accept the process being conducted through a representative acting under power of attorney. Which applies depends on the institution and on the risk profile presented: complex ownership, higher risk jurisdictions and politically exposed persons attract more intensive verification.
Compliance review. The longest stage, ordinarily five to fifteen business days and longer for complex structures. Further questions as to source of funds, the nature of the business or expected transaction patterns are common at this point.
Activation. On approval the account is opened, the IBAN issued and access to online banking provided. Where a minimum balance is required it can generally be funded by international transfer.
For a single shareholder resident in the European Union with a straightforward business, two to four weeks from first contact to an operating account is realistic. For multiple shareholders, non-EU jurisdictions or corporate ownership, four to eight weeks is the better assumption. Both fall within the 60 business day period, but neither leaves room for a false start.
What Can Be Done Remotely
Whether a Romanian business account can be opened without attending in person is the question founders ask most often, and the answer depends on the institution.
Several of the larger banks now offer remote or partially remote onboarding for corporate clients: documentation submitted electronically, verification conducted by video, and the account agreement executed electronically or through a power of attorney. Others require physical attendance for a corporate client's first account while accepting remote processes thereafter. A minority operate entirely digital onboarding.
Electronic money institutions such as Wise Business and Revolut Business offer faster onboarding and multi-currency facilities. Whether an account with such a provider satisfies the obligation under Law No. 239/2025 is a separate question, and one that turns on whether the provider is a credit institution within the meaning of the Fiscal Procedure Code or an electronic money institution. Where the position is unclear, the obligation should be satisfied with a licensed Romanian bank and the fintech account treated as supplementary.
Where the shareholder is unable to travel, the practical course is to instruct a Romanian lawyer to conduct the process under power of attorney: to prepare the file in the form the particular bank requires, to conduct the correspondence in Romanian, and to attend the branch where attendance is unavoidable. Coordination with the bank forms part of our company formation service, and the scope of each level of engagement is set out there.
Where the Process Fails
Documentation in the wrong form. Documents submitted without apostille, without certified translation, or with translations that do not track Romanian legal terminology. Applications are refused because the form of a foreign notarial certificate does not match what the institution expects. The remedy is to prepare the file against the requirements of the specific bank rather than against general guidance, and to submit it complete.
Business activity the bank declines to accept. Banks apply heightened caution to digital assets, online gaming, money remittance and payment services, and to models involving frequent high value transactions with higher risk jurisdictions. Where the business falls into one of these categories, detailed disclosure at the outset is more effective than a general description that generates enquiries later.
Language. Most branches operate in Romanian. Correspondence, internal forms and the account documentation are almost invariably in Romanian, and English speaking corporate onboarding is not to be assumed even in Bucharest.
Timing. The 60 business day period runs from registration, not from the date the company first needs the account. Beginning in the first week rather than the eighth leaves room for the supplementary questions that almost always arise.
After the Account Is Opened
The share capital should be paid in and the deposit documented. Evidence of payment is no longer required at the point of incorporation, but a bank statement recording it belongs in the company's records and will be asked for in any subsequent due diligence.
The bank reports the account to ANAF automatically. It remains sensible to confirm that it appears correctly in the company's fiscal record, which can be checked through our company verification tool.
Access should be configured for each authorised signatory, e-Factura integration established where the company issues business to business invoices, and a record of statements maintained for the purposes of the annual financial statements.
Deadlines
Day zero is the date on which the Registration Certificate is issued. The account must be operating by the sixtieth business day. Non-compliance exposes the company to a fine of RON 3,000 to RON 10,000 and to classification as fiscally inactive; if that status persists for twelve months, ANAF is obliged to apply for dissolution.
The process should begin no later than the second week following incorporation, in parallel with fiscal registration.
