Looking for an EE (Estonian) IBAN (December 2020)

This is a nightmare for a lot of app developers. Google and Apple ask to developers for an IBAN of the same country of the company to pay them for the apps that they sell in Google Play or App Store.

At first I found a workaround, I had a private Pocopay bank account – Pocopay is an Estonian fintech. Google sent my money to my private account and then I sent it to my company account. As I was a shareholder this procedure was legal. But unfortunately Pocopay closed all the accounts of people outside Estonia this summer. They wanted to change their product and nowadays they are still changing. What a shame! I loved it!

So, I had to search for a new solution. Although I spent a lot of time searching on Internet, I didn’t find any other Estonian fintech that used Estonian IBANs.

Finally I realized that only traditional banks can give me an Estonian IBAN. I found this list of Estonian banks:

https://www.pangaliit.ee/welcome-to-estonian-banking-association/members

I visited their websites, searched for fees and sent an email to some of them. Although only one of them is in e-Residency Marketplace some of them accept e-Residents but no one will open you an account without a face to face meeting and the year 2020 is not the best one to travel.

Finally I chose LHV. I think that it is the most e-Resident friendly, you can apply before to travel to Estonia, then once you are accepted you have 6 months to travel there to open the bank account. Nowadays, maybe because the corona you have more time. At the same time you visit their branch to sign the documents you can pickup a debit card.