Open your account.

1. Choose the account. Business checking, a treasury account, or a multi-currency structure — the business pages compare them.
2. Gather your documents. Certificate of incorporation, constitutional documents, proof of registered address, plus identification and proof of address for every director, authorised signatory and beneficial owner holding 25% or more.
3. Complete the application. Include the nature of the business, expected monthly turnover, main trading countries and your principal counterparties.
4. Verification. We verify the entity and each individual, and run sanctions and adverse-media checks.
5. Approval and setup. On approval, users are created for each signatory with the permissions you specified.

What causes delays

• Ownership structures involving holding companies or trusts, which require documents for each layer until the ultimate individuals are identified.
• Directors resident in different countries, each needing separate verification.
• A vague description of business activity. Be specific about what you sell, to whom, and how you get paid.

Individual logins

Every person who touches the account gets their own credentials. Shared logins are never permitted: they destroy the audit trail and make it impossible to tell who authorised what.

Permission levels

• View only — sees balances and statements, cannot transact. Ideal for bookkeepers and auditors.
• Initiator — prepares payments but cannot release them.
• Approver — releases payments prepared by others.
• Administrator — manages users and approval rules, usually a director.

Approval rules

Set thresholds so that payments above a chosen amount require a second — or third — approver. Separating who prepares a payment from who releases it is the single most effective control against both internal fraud and invoice scams.

Making changes

Adding or removing a signatory, or changing approval rules, requires a mandate instruction from the authorised persons on record. Raise a support ticket to start it; changes are usually applied within one to two working days once verified.

Review your user list whenever someone leaves. A dormant login belonging to a former employee is a serious and very common risk.

Personal accounts

• Photo identification — a valid passport, national identity card or driving licence. It must be unexpired and show your full name, date of birth and photograph.
• Proof of address — a utility bill, bank statement, tax notice or government letter issued in the last three months, showing your name and residential address. Mobile phone bills and screenshots are not accepted.
• Tax identification — your tax identification number and country of tax residency.

Business accounts

• Certificate of incorporation or business registration.
• Memorandum and articles of association, or the equivalent constitutional document.
• Proof of registered business address.
• Identification and proof of address for every director, authorised signatory and beneficial owner holding 25% or more.
• A short description of the business activity, expected turnover and main trading countries.

How to submit them

Documents are uploaded through the secure upload screen in your application or, once you have an account, under Profile → Verification. Accepted formats are JPG, PNG and PDF up to 5 MB per file. Never email documents to anyone claiming to be from Optimal MetroHub Bank — see What we will never ask you for.

Photograph documents on a flat, dark surface in good light. Blurred edges, glare and cropped corners are rejected automatically and add days to your application.

Timelines depend on the product and on how quickly your documents pass verification.

What can slow it down

• Documents that are expired, unreadable, cropped or do not match the name on the application.
• A proof of address older than three months.
• Complex ownership structures on business accounts, which require additional beneficial-owner checks.
• Applications submitted outside working hours or over a public holiday.

You will receive an email whenever the status changes. If your application has been pending noticeably longer than the times above, sign in and raise a support ticket so the onboarding team can look at your specific case.

Personal accounts

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• You must hold valid government-issued photo identification.
• You must be able to evidence a residential address in a country Optimal MetroHub Bank serves.
• You must not appear on international sanctions lists, and you must be able to confirm your tax residency.

Business accounts

• The entity must be legally registered and in good standing with its registrar.
• Directors and beneficial owners must complete individual identity verification.
• The business activity must fall within our accepted industry list. Certain sectors — including unlicensed money services, gambling without a licence, and unregulated virtual asset dealing — cannot be onboarded.

If your application is declined

Regulation limits how much detail we can share about a declined application. You are welcome to reapply if your circumstances change. If you believe a decision was made on incorrect information, contact us and we will review it.