How to open a Swedish business bank account

Sweden has a sequencing problem that most guides skip past. Bolagsverket will not register an aktiebolag until a bank has issued a bankintyg — a written certificate, in Swedish, confirming the share capital has been paid into the company. That makes a bank a party to the incorporation itself, and it means the hard part of Swedish business banking arrives before the company legally exists.

This guide covers who issues a bankintyg, what a Swedish bank charges once you are past that, which international providers accept Swedish companies, and what you actually give up — bankgiro, Swish, an automatic link to your skattekonto — when your account is not Swedish.

Updated 5 September 2026 Prices checked 5 September 2026

Opening the account, step by step

Settle the share-capital question first
If you are forming an AB, the capital certificate has to come from an institution willing to issue one in the form Bolagsverket accepts. Ask about it before you commit to a provider — most international accounts cannot do it, which is why this step comes first and not fourth.
Time required: 1–3 weeks
Decide whether you need a Swedish account number
This is the decision everything else follows from. Bankgiro and Swish for business both require a Swedish bank. If an IBAN is acceptable to your customers, the market opens up considerably and gets much cheaper.
Apply to two providers in parallel
Approval is never certain, at a Swedish bank least of all. Applying to a second provider costs nothing when opening is free and saves you weeks if the first one declines without explanation — which is the normal outcome, since a bank is not obliged to give you a reason.
Time required: Under an hour each
Complete KYC and collect your details
Expect to supply the registration certificate from Bolagsverket, the ownership chain up to the real beneficial owners, ID for each of them, and a concrete description of what the company sells and to whom. Vague answers are the single most common reason an application stalls.
Time required: Minutes to several days
Register the account with Skatteverket
Refunds from your tax account are only paid out to an account you have registered. A Swedish bank account can be registered through the bank; a foreign one takes a form. Do it early — a refund with nowhere to go simply sits on the skattekonto.
Time required: A few weeks

Swedish business accounts compared

Two international providers cover the Swedish market properly. Every figure below is read from the provider’s own pricing page rather than a comparison site, and re-checked quarterly.

Note the local account number column before the fees. Neither provider issues a Swedish account number or a bankgiro, and for some businesses that single fact decides the question regardless of price.

Provider	Opening fee	Monthly fee	Local account number	Best for
Revolut Business	Free	SEK 150 – SEK 1,500/month	No	Multi-currency operations
Wise Business	SEK 670one-off	Free	No	Cheapest currency conversion

International providers that accept Swedish companies · Prices checked 5 September 2026.

The providers worth applying to

These two differ less in price than in shape: one is a monthly subscription that bundles cards and expense tools, the other is a one-off payment for multi-currency account details and nothing else.

Revolut Business

Multi-currency operations

Open an account

The usual first application, and the one most likely to be approved quickly. Swedish companies are issued a Lithuanian IBAN rather than a Swedish account number, so this is the option for a company that invoices businesses and does not need bankgiro or Swish.

Opening fee: Free
Monthly fee: SEK 150 – SEK 1,500
Local account number: No

Basic 150, Grow 450, Scale 1,500 SEK per month; Enterprise is quoted individually. Swedish businesses are issued a Lithuanian (LT) IBAN, not a Swedish account number or bankgiro.

Regulatory status: EEA accounts are issued by Revolut Bank UAB, a Lithuanian bank licensed by the ECB and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania. UK accounts have been issued by Revolut Ltd, an FCA-authorised e-money institution (FRN 900562); since Revolut Bank UK Ltd exited mobilisation and received full PRA/FCA bank authorisation on 11 March 2026 (Financial Services Register No. 981170), Revolut has been migrating UK accounts — including Business accounts — onto it, with eligible deposits on migrated accounts protected by the FSCS up to £120,000. Which entity holds a given UK account depends on migration status.

Wise Business

Cheapest currency conversion

Open an account

A one-off opening fee and then close to nothing unless you actually move money. It is the strongest choice if you invoice in euros, dollars or pounds and want to stop losing margin on conversion — and the weakest if you want a bank-like relationship, because Wise is an e-money institution rather than a bank and does not issue SEK account details at all.

Opening fee: SEK 670
Monthly fee: Free
Local account number: No

One-off 670 SEK for account details in 22 currencies; no monthly or holding fee. SEK is not one of the currencies Wise issues account details for.

Regulatory status: Wise Payments Limited, an FCA-authorised electronic money institution (FRN 900507); balances are safeguarded rather than covered by a deposit-guarantee scheme

Why Swedish banks decline so many new companies

Sweden is not the friendly outlier people assume. The four incumbents apply the same logic as their Danish counterparts: every business customer is a permanent anti-money-laundering monitoring obligation, and that obligation costs roughly the same to carry whether the company turns over a million kronor or nothing. A newly registered company with one owner and no trading history generates too little revenue to cover it, so the commercially rational answer is no.

That answer is not usually explained. Banks are entitled to decline without giving a reason, and in practice they do, which is why applicants read rejection as a judgement on their business when it is arithmetic about theirs.

The exception is an existing relationship. If you already bank personally somewhere — better still, if you have a mortgage there — ask that branch about a företagskonto directly. A price and a willingness that are never advertised are often available to a customer the bank already knows.

Bankgiro, Swish, and what a foreign IBAN really costs

No bankgiro number. Bankgiro is the Swedish invoicing rail: a short number, tied to your organisationsnummer, that customers recognise and their accounting systems expect. Bankgirot’s own answer to how you get one is to ask your bank — the numbers are administered by the banks in the Swedish system — so a provider outside that system cannot give you one. Business customers will pay an IBAN without much comment; larger buyers with rigid supplier onboarding sometimes will not.

No Swish for business. Swish Handel and Swish Företag are built on top of Swedish bank accounts. If you take small payments from consumers — a market stall, a clinic, a trade — this argument usually settles the decision on its own, and no amount of saved monthly fee compensates for it.

No bankintyg. An international provider will not certify your share capital to Bolagsverket. That matters at formation and nowhere else, but it matters absolutely.

None of this makes a foreign account a bad idea. These are the specific, listable costs of one, and they are worth weighing against Swedish opening fees and a real chance of being turned down.

Registering a foreign account with Skatteverket

Every Swedish company has a skattekonto. VAT refunds, overpaid preliminary tax and other credits are paid out from it — but only to a bank account you have actively registered. Leave it unregistered and the balance stays on the tax account until you deal with it.

With a Swedish bank the registration is a routine service the bank performs for you. With a foreign account it is a form you complete and send in yourself, and it will not happen on its own. Skatteverket publishes the current procedure in English.

Start it as soon as the account exists rather than when the first refund is due. The processing is not fast, and a refund you are waiting on is a poor moment to discover the paperwork has not been filed.

Is a free Swedish business account possible?

Not at a Swedish bank. The advertised prices are the prices, and the only reliable discount is an existing relationship worth protecting.

Through the international providers, something close to free is achievable — either a low entry tier or no monthly fee at all in exchange for a one-off charge. That is a genuine option for a company with a handful of invoices a month. It is priced on the assumption that companies which grow will move up a tier, and most do.

The honest framing is that “free” means no monthly fee. Payments, currency conversion and cards are still charged for, and once you are actually trading that is where the cost sits.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use my personal bank account for my Swedish company?

Not for an aktiebolag. The AB is a separate legal person and its money has to sit in an account in the company’s name. For an enskild firma the law does not forbid it, but the bank’s own terms almost certainly do, and banks close accounts over it. Even where it is permitted, separating the two is what makes the bookkeeping survivable.

What is a bankintyg, and can a foreign provider issue one?

It is a certificate from a bank confirming that the share capital of a new AB has been paid into the company, and Bolagsverket requires it in Swedish before it will register the company. In practice it comes from a Swedish bank. Neither Revolut nor Wise issues one, so plan the formation around a provider that will.

Do I need a bankgiro number, or is an IBAN enough?

An IBAN is enough to invoice business customers and to pay tax and VAT. You need a bankgiro if your customers’ purchase-ledger systems expect one, or if you sell to consumers who are used to seeing a bankgiro on an invoice. It is issued through a Swedish bank, so wanting one narrows the field to Swedish providers.

Can I get Swish for my company without a Swedish bank account?

No. The business versions of Swish are sold by the Swedish institutions connected to Swish, and the Swish number is tied to a company account you hold with the one that signed you up — you apply for it inside their business banking, not at Swish. If consumer payments by phone are core to how you get paid, that requirement outranks every other consideration on this page.

What are the disadvantages of a non-Swedish bank account?

Three concrete ones: no bankgiro, no Swish for business, and no bankintyg at formation. Add a manual registration with Skatteverket before refunds can be paid to you. Everything else — receiving payments, paying suppliers, paying tax — works normally over SEPA.

Why do business accounts cost money when personal ones are free?

Because a business customer carries obligations a personal one does not: identifying every beneficial owner, understanding the business well enough to monitor it, and reporting on it afterwards. That is staff time with a fixed floor. Personal accounts are subsidised by the rest of the relationship — mortgages, savings, cards — and a new company brings no such relationship with it.

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

At an international provider, minutes to a couple of days, depending on how fast you answer the KYC questions. At a Swedish bank, expect weeks, an in-person meeting, and a real possibility of being declined at the end of it.

Opening the account, step by step

Settle the share-capital question first

Decide whether you need a Swedish account number

Apply to two providers in parallel

Complete KYC and collect your details

Register the account with Skatteverket