Business advice

European Banks Prepared for a Crisis? The financial impact of the coronavirus surpasses the old worst-case scenarios, threatening a credit crunch or even a new financial crisis. Some economists expect the European economy to decline by more than 10 percent in the first half of this year because of the pandemic, threatening an explosion of bad loans, deteriorating assets and plummeting share prices. The question that regulators and central bankers are asking themselves now is whether the measures they took in recent years to crisis-proof the banking system will be enough to prevent a credit crunch, bank failures and a financial meltdown with global ramifications. Banks are under pressure anywhere on the planet that the virus has spread, which is virtually everywhere. The problem is particularly acute in Europe because many banks there never really recovered from the last financial crisis, which began in 2008 with toxic real estate debt, spread to eurozone government...

Open bank account in EU One of the biggest advantages of having an EU bank account is that you don't need to live in the European Union to have an account here. In case, if you carry out your transactions in euros, you can save money on exchange fees. Security is also a strong incentive to open a bank account in the EU. European banks usually offer state-of-the-art services, including a large network of bank machines operating 24/7 and safe online banking. The cost of opening an account is usually very low. In some cases, you can get a free credit card, usually a Visa or MasterCard. At the moment, many non-EU residents are granted permission to travel freely, either for leisure or work purposes, and to open bank accounts within the EU, just like EU residents. However, it is still necessary to understand the procedural requirements and to clarify certain issues that, at first glance, may seem slightly challenging for a non-EU resident. Some of these issues are related to ban...

Incorporation of a bank in EU Incorporation of a bank may seem to be rather far and unreachable goal, but in fact this destination is not so much different from incorporation of any other legal entity. Surely, due to the involvement of other people savings and possible crucial effect on a country's overall economy, it is important that banks are subjected to stricter regulations and frequent audits. European Commission and European Central Bank work together in order to strengthen the Economic and Monetary Union. One of the tools developed to navigate towards the above mission is a Single Supervisory Mechanism which grants an authority for ECB to conduct supervisory reviews and inspections, ensure compliance with EU rules, set higher capital requirements as well as grant or withdraw banking licences. Nevertheless, each EU member state can have slightly different procedures and requirements regarding incorporation of banks. Incorporation of a bank in Latvia As a member s...