Which documents do I need to verify my business?

Commercial register extract – no older than 6 months

The commercial register extract is a document, issued by a commercial register, confirming your company’s entry in this register. It contains information about your company, such as name, number and description, legal form, authorised representatives, business owner and shared capital. It also contains relevant information on the commercial register itself, and any branch details.

The two most common forms of commercial register extract are the ‘current’ commercial register extract and the ‘chronological’ extract. Depending on the length, the commercial register extract may include several pages. All pages are required for company verification, and the extract must not be older than 6 months.

Shareholder List / Shareholder Agreement

Shareholder List:

A Shareholder List is a list of all shareholders and their shares in a company. The list of shareholders is an appendix to the commercial register. The Shareholder List must contain the following information about shareholders who are natural persons:

• First and last name
• Date of birth
• Residence
• Nominal amount and serial numbers of the business shares
• Percentage of participation in the shared capital
• If a shareholder holds several shares: indicate the total amount of the participation in the share capital as a separate percentage

If a shareholder is another company, additional information must be provided:

• List of affiliated companies
• Status list
• Register court and registration number

Shareholder Agreement:

The Shareholder Agreement is the appendix or statute to the founding document of a registered company. This is notarised for all registered companies and describes the object of the company, the company name, the shareholders and the capital, the distribution of the shares, the address of the company, as well as all resolutions resolved in the first company meeting and the resulting circumstances.

Alternatively, a company can also be founded as a one-person or multi-person company using a sample protocol (Musterprotokoll). This contains all information of the partnership agreement and replaces the founding certificate and the annex as a simplified form of foundation according to Paragraph 2 Paragraph 1a GmbHG. This is possible if a company has one or up to three shareholders.

Company Agreement

​​A Company Agreement is a document that provides the framework for how a limited liability company operates. It governs the relations among members, managers, and officers of the company, assignees of membership interests in the company, and the company itself – and other internal affairs of the company.

A Company Agreement has several pages and must be authorised by a notary. All pages of the Company Agreement, as well as signatures and the notary's authorisation, must be present on the document.

Power of Attorney

A Power of Attorney is a document that gives a person the power of representation for another person in legal transactions. In other words, if you are not the sole director of the company, you will also need a completed Power of Attorney signed by the company’s beneficial owners confirming that legal transactions may be conducted on behalf of the company.

The forms can be found here:

• Power of Attorney Company

Authorised representative = Person who opens the Holvi account.

Required documents by country

Depending on where your business is located, you’ll need to provide at least the following documents – in addition to Power of Attorney, if applicable.

🇫🇮 Finland

🇩🇪 Germany

🇦🇹 Austria

Eurozone

🇧🇪 Belgium

🇮🇪 Ireland

🇳🇱 Netherlands