Answer

How to open a business bank account

Updated October 2026. Evergreen page — refreshed in place as facts change.

Step 1: Register the business under the name you'll bank in

An LLC, corporation or partnership exists once the state accepts its formation filing, and the account will be titled exactly as that filing reads. A sole proprietor needs no state filing to exist, but trading under any name other than your own legal name, such as 'Rivera Design' instead of 'Ana Rivera', means registering that name as a DBA (an assumed or fictitious business name) with the state or county first.

The name is the most common thing that stalls an application. Apply with the legal name on the formation document, and give a trading name as the DBA, not in its place.

Step 2: Get an EIN, unless you're a sole proprietor without one

An Employer Identification Number is the business's tax ID. The IRS issues it free, and the online application assigns the number at the end of the session. LLCs with more than one member, corporations, partnerships and any business with employees need one; most banks also ask single-member LLCs for one. The IRS confirms the number in a CP 575 notice, and a 147C letter replaces a lost one.

A sole proprietor with no employees can use their own Social Security number instead. Anytime Capital's application works the same way: every US business gives an EIN except a sole proprietorship, where the owner's SSN stands in for it.

Step 3: Gather the documents

Expect to provide the formation document (articles of organization or incorporation, a certificate of formation, or an excerpt from the state registry), something showing who owns the business (an operating agreement, a register of members or a cap table), proof of the business address dated within the last three months, and ID for each owner. Our document checklist breaks this down by business type.

Step 4: Know who counts as an owner

Under FinCEN's customer due diligence rule, the bank identifies every individual who owns 25% or more of the business, so up to four people, plus one person with significant control, such as the CEO, managing member or general partner. Each gives their legal name, date of birth, home address and SSN; owners who are not US persons give a passport.

A common slip is listing owners whose stakes add up to well under 100% without saying who holds the rest. Anytime Capital's application asks outright whether anyone else owns 25% or more whenever the people listed hold less than 76% between them, because that is where a missing owner would have to be.

Don't confuse this with FinCEN's beneficial ownership information (BOI) report. Since March 2025, companies formed in the US no longer file BOI reports with the government, but the bank's own owner questions are a separate rule and still apply.

Step 5: Answer the activity questions honestly

Every bank sets an expected-activity profile for a new business account under its anti-money-laundering program, so the application asks questions that are not documents: what the account is for, where the money comes from, and how many payments and how much money you expect to move each month.

Anytime Capital asks these as choices, including the purpose of the account (supplier payments, contractor payouts, cross-border payments and so on), source-of-funds categories, and a monthly volume band from under $10,000 to over $10 million. Pick the band you really expect. Activity far outside it later is what triggers a review, not the size of the number itself.

Step 6: Choose the account by how your money moves

Fees matter, but the account is mostly judged by what it lets you do. Compare:

• Rails: ACH and same-day ACH for vendors and payroll, wires for closings and large payments, and RTP or FedNow for instant transfers around the clock.
• Cards: physical and virtual cards for employees, each with its own limit, so you never share one company card.
• Getting paid: whether card payments, invoices and payment links settle into the same balance or arrive days later from a separate processor.
• International: whether paying a supplier abroad is a SWIFT wire through correspondent banks or a payout on their local rail.
• Books and tools: accounting exports, multiple users with roles, and an API or MCP server if you use software or AI agents.
• Who holds the money: fintech accounts are provided through partner banks, so ask which institution holds the deposits and read the account terms at sign-up.

How long does it take to open a business bank account?

The online application itself usually takes minutes. Approval ranges from same day for a straightforward LLC or corporation to several days when the review needs more, typically holding companies, trusts and layered ownership, where each layer's owners have to be identified.

At Anytime Capital, most complete business applications are approved the same day. When the formation document can be read, the application fills in the legal name, entity type and date and state of formation from it for you to confirm, so most of the typing is the owners' details.