Opening a US business bank account without an SSN
Michel Myara is co-founder and product designer at looch, where he designs the tools small businesses use to get paid, manage spend, and run their books.
You do not need an SSN to open a US business bank account. Federal banking rules explicitly let a non-US person identify themselves with a passport number and country of issuance instead. What you need is a US entity, an EIN, and a provider whose own rules accept non-resident founders, and the providers differ far more than the law does.
That last part is where most guides go wrong. They list ten banks without checking what each one's own documentation says. This page quotes each provider's published requirements directly, with the link and the date we verified it, because eligibility lives in help-center pages that change without notice. Every provider claim below was verified against the provider's own documentation on 8/16/2026.
What federal law actually requires
Under the Customer Identification Program rule (31 CFR 1020.220), a US bank must collect at minimum four things before opening an account: name, date of birth for individuals, address, and an identification number. For the identification number, the regulation says a non-US person may provide a taxpayer identification number, a passport number and country of issuance, an alien identification card number, or the number of another government-issued photo ID. An SSN is never named as the only acceptable number.
Banks also collect beneficial ownership information for the company itself under a separate rule (31 CFR 1010.230): identity details for each individual owning 25% or more, plus one person who controls the company. Verifying those owners follows the same elements as verifying customers, so the passport substitution applies to them too. FinCEN's 2/13/2026 exceptive relief lets a bank limit this exercise to the first account you open with it, plus cases where the bank has doubts and its own risk-based reviews; the relief is optional for banks, so some will keep asking at every account, and none stopped collecting.
One more thing changed recently, and founders keep conflating it: on 8/14/2026, FinCEN's final rule permanently ended beneficial ownership reporting to the government for US companies. That is about filing with FinCEN, not about your bank. Your bank still asks who owns 25%. We track the BOI story, with sources, in our fee and deadline tracker.
So when a provider asks for your passport and your co-founder's, it is following its federal rulebook, not singling you out.
Sources: 31 CFR 1020.220, 31 CFR 1010.230, FinCEN exceptive relief order. Verified 8/16/2026.
What to have ready before you apply
- A US entity and its formation documents. Articles of Organization or a Certificate of Formation, and an operating agreement if the LLC has multiple members.
- An EIN. Every fintech here verifies the company by its EIN, Chase lists it as one of three acceptable tax identification numbers, and a founder without an SSN needs one regardless. You can get one with no SSN or ITIN: the IRS SS-4 instructions say a responsible party who has neither writes "foreign" or N/A on line 7b, and international applicants can apply by phone or receive the EIN by fax generally within 4 business days. Our guide to getting an EIN without an SSN walks the whole path.
- A real operating address. This is the quiet application killer. Mercury's eligibility page accepts a US or international principal-place-of-business address, including residential, but states that registered agent addresses, PO boxes, and UPS Store addresses are not accepted. If the only address your company has is its registered agent's, fix that before applying anywhere.
- Passports for every 25% owner, per the beneficial ownership rules above.
Who accepts non-resident founders, per their own documentation
| Provider | Non-resident founder | Identification without an SSN | The constraint their docs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America | No | Not applicable | "Foreign business customers are unable to apply at this time" |
| Chase | Not stated | ITIN accepted; passport among ID options | Multi-member LLCs must apply in a branch |
| Mercury | Yes | Passport-based | No registered agent addresses; founder-residence country list |
| Relay | Partly | Passport number in place of SSN | Every beneficial owner needs a physical US address |
| Wise | Yes | Photo ID for non-US owners | No Nevada businesses or US territories |
Payoneer comes up constantly in this space, and we deliberately left it out of the table: it is a payments platform with USD receiving accounts, not a US business bank account, and its own public pages describe registration generically, with documents varying by the applicant's country. There is no single citable eligibility standard to hold it to, so we are not inventing one.
The two traditional banks
Bank of America is the cleanest shut-out in the set. Its LLC application requirements page states applicants should be US residents, the business must be US based, and "Foreign business customers are unable to apply at this time." It also requires SSN and date of birth for everyone on the application, including all 25% owners. Source: Bank of America LLC application requirements. Verified 8/16/2026.
Chase does not publish a flat rule either way. Its checklist accepts an SSN, an ITIN for non-US citizens, or an EIN as the tax identification number, requires two forms of ID with extra forms possible for non-US citizens, and restricts online applications to single-member, single-manager LLCs: multi-member LLCs must visit a branch, which requires being physically in the US. Source: Chase business account checklist. Verified 8/16/2026.
The fintechs
Mercury states it plainly: "Mercury supports U.S. companies with founders from around the world. You do not need to be a U.S. citizen or resident to apply." The company must be US-formed with existing or planned US operations and a real principal-place-of-business address. Two constraints from its own pages: the address rule above, and a prohibited-country list keyed to where the founder lives, which is long and changes, so check it directly rather than trusting any blog's snapshot, including ours. Decisions usually come in 1 to 2 business days. Sources: Mercury eligibility, verified 8/16/2026. For how Mercury compares to looch overall: looch vs Mercury.
Relay accepts a passport number in place of an SSN and passport-only photo ID for non-US citizens, and it collects an extra financial profile from non-US-resident owners. But its required-documents page carries a line that changes the answer for many readers: every beneficial owner needs a physical US address, with no PO boxes or virtual mailboxes. A founder with no US address at all does not fit that requirement as documented. Relay's prohibited-country list is also keyed to citizenship or residency, which is stricter than Mercury's living-in standard. Source: Relay required documents, verified 8/16/2026. Side by side: looch vs Relay.
Wise verifies a US business with its EIN and asks for an SSN only from beneficial owners who live in the US or hold a US passport; non-US owners provide a photo ID copy. Its stated gaps are geographic: "Due to licensing limitations, we're unable to onboard businesses from Nevada, and US territories." If you formed in Nevada, Wise is off the table by its own documentation. Source: Wise US business verification. Verified 8/16/2026.
Where looch fits
The two prerequisites every provider in the table requires, a formed US entity and its EIN, are what looch Start delivers: it forms the company (Delaware C corp, Delaware LLC, Wyoming LLC, or Florida LLC) for $249 all-in and obtains the EIN even when the founder has no SSN or ITIN, delivering the official IRS CP-575 confirmation letter through the in-app virtual office. That letter and your formation documents are exactly what the providers above ask you to produce. Current looch figures are on the looch pricing page.
After approval: What the providers actually commit to in writing
This is the section the roundup guides skip, and the honest version is shorter than the internet's folklore suggests.
Only one provider in this set publishes a clear customer-facing description of post-approval reviews: Wise, whose account restriction help article says "We may temporarily restrict your account to keep you and your money safe while we complete a routine check," and tells customers to respond to information requests and upload clear, unexpired documents (verified 8/16/2026). Mercury documents mid-review document requests at the application stage. The others publish little or nothing about mid-life account reviews.
You have likely read freeze stories about every provider named here. We could not verify any of them against provider documentation, so this page does not repeat them as fact. What the regulations above guarantee is that every provider monitors accounts and can ask you to re-verify; what their own pages establish is how thin the published commitments about that process are. Judge providers by what they commit to in writing, and stack the deck in your own favor:
- Keep your CP-575 EIN letter, formation documents and operating agreement where you can produce them same-day.
- Use a genuine operating address everywhere, never the registered agent's.
- Answer verification emails fast, with documents that are current and legible. Wise's own instructions say exactly this, and it is sound practice for every provider in the table.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an ITIN to open a US business bank account?
No provider in this set lists an ITIN as required. Chase accepts one as a TIN option for non-US citizens, and the fintechs document passport-based identification instead. You also do not need an ITIN to get the EIN itself; the SS-4 route works with neither an SSN nor an ITIN.
Didn't beneficial ownership reporting end? Why is the bank still asking who owns the company?
Both are true. FinCEN's final rule, effective 8/14/2026, permanently ended BOI reporting to FinCEN for US companies. Banks collect ownership information under a different rule that still stands, at minimum at the first account you open with an institution, and at every account for banks that choose not to use FinCEN's optional relief. The filing to the government is gone; the questions at account opening are not. Details and sources in our tracker.
Can I open the account without traveling to the US?
By their own documentation: Bank of America does not take foreign business customers at all, and Chase requires a branch visit for multi-member LLCs. Mercury and Wise document online processes with passport-based identification, and Relay does for owners who have a physical US address. None of the fintech paths documents a travel requirement.
What does looch cost?
Formation is $249 all-in through looch Start, including the state filing fee, the EIN and a year of registered agent service. The business accounts themselves are no-fee; current account and payment pricing is on the looch pricing page, linked above.
