Madagascar corporate bank account opening for foreign & local companies

Madagascar corporate banking services in 2024

Since 2003, Healy Consultants Group will assist our Clients to open a multi-currency corporate bank account for companies in the Madagascar.

Opening a Madagascar bank account for a Madagascar company requires strong due diligence and know-how. Learn how our team of experts guarantee corporate bank account approval.

Table of Madagascar banking problems and solutions

No.	Madagascar banking problem	Solution
1.	There is no bank deposit insurance scheme in Madagascar yet. If a bank fails, depositors lose their money.	For your Madagascar LLC, Healy Consultants Group will open a multi-currency corporate bank account in the USA or EU or Singapore.
2.	Madagascar banks always require physical presence as well as the signatory to obtain a residence visa in order to successfully secure a corporate bank account opening.	Our Firm will seek banks with branches for non-Madagascar residents. This might allow the beneficiary to visit at a branch closer to them, or in their home country in some cases.
3.	The majority of Madagascar banks only provide support in their native French language. This is inconvenient for multinational Clients in the America, Middle East & Asia Pacific.	Healy Consultants Group staff assist our multinational Clients with bank communication. If required, Healy Consultants Group can also provide Bank Signatory and Treasury services to our Clients to facilitate transactions. Additionally, Healy Consultants Group can provide our Client with Paymaster Services.
4.	Bank refuses to onboard a foreign company which does not have a physical office in Madagascar, or Madagascar customers or suppliers.	If an active Virtual Office is not sufficient for the Madagascar bank, Healy Consultants Group will open an international corporate bank account with a top tier bank outside Madagascar. Healy Consultants Group has a guaranteed corporate bank account approval policy.
5.	Global banks continue to tighten corporate bank account opening procedures, their internal compliance departments completing more thorough due diligence of Clients. Consequently, our Clients should expect bank account approval to take a minimum of six weeks. Furthermore, banks now require evidence of proof of business in the country where the company bank account will be, including sales contracts or lease agreement.	At the start of an engagement, Healy Consultants Group prepares a quality business plan tailored to our Client’s business and organises the Client’s KYC documents, making the bank’s verification process timelier. If our Client requires a bank account at short notice, we recommend an immediate Madagascar solution, if available.

The Madagascar banking sector
Healy Consultants Group’s summary view
- COVID-19 has thrown all economic estimates into disarray. After four years of steady growth, economic growth is expected to flat-line or decline into negative territory in 2020. Sharp declines in exports, layoffs, factory closures, will cause local businesses to go bankrupt, loan defaults will cause local banks to go bankrupt, and increasing unemployment.
- Exchange-control regulations exist in Madagascar. For foreign exchange control purposes, the two kinds of operations are current operations and capital operations.
  - Current operations include transfers abroad of profits after payments of taxes, dividends, earned income, expatriate allowances and savings. Current operations require only a transfer declaration to a local bank.
  - Capital operations include operations relating to stock transfers, shares of liquidation bonuses, sales of businesses or assets and compensation for expropriations. Capital operations involving transfers abroad require an authorization from the Ministry of Finance.
- Madagascar does not implement FATCA regulations, and does not require the disclosure of the beneficial ownership of each corporate bank account opened in the Madagascar.
- Madagascar is not a participating jurisdiction for Common Reporting Standard and has not yet set any date for the first year of exchanges in the automatic exchange of financial account information amongst jurisdictions.
- Overall, Healy Consultants Group recommends our multi-national Clients’ minimize the funds held with Madagascar banks.
Key information on the Madagascar banking sector
- In July 2020, Malagasy Parliament passed a new banking and insurance laws. These laws aim to provide more customer protection by mandating more transparency in the services offered, require companies to secure their IT systems, and provide tools to detect money laundering and terrorism financing.
- The new banking law can require banks to set aside funds (to be deposited at the Central Bank) to guarantee deposits (on top of the required reserve ratio). The new insurance law puts supervision of insurance companies in the hands of the Banking Supervision Committee (CSBF), rather than the Ministry of Economy and Finance to avoid conflicts of interest, as the major insurance companies in Madagascar are state-owned.
- Madagascar’s financial sector has 11 commercial banks, most of them are subsidiaries of foreign banks based in France, and mainland Africa. The top four banks account for more than 86 percent of assets and deposits.
- The banking penetration rate, i.e. access to a bank account, among Madagascar’s population stood at 5.7% in 2014, making the country’s financial sector one of the least developed in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Some reasons Madagascar banks give for rejecting new accounts include i) due to security and compliance reasons they are unable to verify new Clients based overseas ii) only opening accounts for wholly owned by Madagascar companies (i e they will not onboard a company which is beneficially owned by companies not registered in Madagascar) and iii) need operations in Madagascar.
- On average, Madagascar banks take two months to issue account numbers and e-banking access.
- Most Madagascar bank branch staff speak French and correspondence and online banking etc is also in French. If required, Healy Consultants Group staff assist our multinational Clients with bank communication. Furthermore, Healy Consultants Group can also provide Bank Signatory and Treasury services to our Clients to facilitate transactions.
- It is important that our Clients are aware of their corporate and legal obligations in Madagascar and that they timely fulfil the same. Let us know if you require Healy Consultants Group’s assistance to timely and efficiently complete your legal and corporate responsibilities.
Healy Consultants Group fees to help open a corporate bank account in Madagascar
- For a fee of US$4,950 and with bank signatory travel, our staff will secure Madagascar corporate bank account approval for a local Madagascar LLC or branch.
- Our multicurrency corporate bank account opening fees cover the following support services:
  - Creating a quality business plan for the Madagascar banks, explaining the purpose of the business and future banking transactions.
  - Securing welcome emails from multiple Madagascar banks, inviting our Client to submit a corporate bank account application.
  - Healy Consultants Group’s banking team completing, on our Client’s behalf, the corporate bank account application forms and collating Know Your Customer (KYC) due diligence documents.
  - Over the following weeks, the bank officer reverting to our team multiple times to prepare an accurate, complete multicurrency corporate bank account opening file. When the Madagascar bank officer is ready, Healy Consultants Group will convene a physical meeting with our Client.
  - Following successful completion of the above, the bank officer submits a complete potential customer file to the bank’s Legal and Compliance Department.
  - After several weeks, e-mailing multicurrency corporate bank account numbers to our Client.
  - Within three weeks, arranging our Client to receive e-banking log in details, including corporate Visa debit cards and cheque books.
Conclusion

Contact Healy Consultants Group for assistance with opening an Madagascar corporate bank account.