Aphrodite Circle

Setting up and banking

Registering a Cyprus company is the fast part. Getting it a working bank account is usually the slow part, and almost nobody warns you about that in advance.

Figures checked September 2026

Registering the company

A private limited company is the standard vehicle, filed with the Registrar of Companies. The paperwork itself is routine and most owners use a local lawyer or corporate services firm to handle it. The part worth planning for isn't the registration; it's what comes after.

The Business Support Centre

If your company has significant foreign ownership, the government offers a useful fast track: registration of foreign-owned companies within about ten working days, and once registered, the company can hire non-EU staff without the standard labour market test. Broadly, this applies where non-EU nationals own more than half the company, or own half or less with a stake worth at least EUR 200,000. It matters here specifically because it is what unlocks hiring the way most founders want to hire; see the hiring page for what that permit route looks like in practice.

On the name: this was the Business Facilitation Unit, and most of what you will read online still calls it that. It was reorganised into the Business Support Centre in May 2025. The route is broadly the same; the name and the point of contact are not. If an adviser is still referring to the BFU, it is worth checking how current the rest of their information is.

Business banking

This is the step that surprises people. Cyprus banks apply serious scrutiny to new corporate accounts, especially for companies with foreign shareholders, and the process can take weeks even with everything in order. It is faster with a clean structure, a real operating business rather than a pure holding company, and a local introduction rather than a cold application. This is one of the more concrete things the Circle can help with directly.

Before you file anything: talk to your bank relationship first, not last. A structure that's clean on paper but unbankable in practice is a common, avoidable mistake.

Sources:

A local introduction is worth more than a cold application here. That is part of what the dinners are for, and this is who is already in the area.

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