USD Account Without a US Company: How It Works (2026)

Key takeaways

A company registered outside the US can receive ACH and Fedwire payments from US customers if it has US routing and account numbers, which some providers issue to foreign companies in their own name.
Mercury requires a company formed and registered in the United States or a US territory, Relay serves US-registered businesses and Brex requires a valid US incorporation, so these accounts need a US company.
SBA loans are for businesses located in the US, so a company abroad that wants them needs a US business.
Stripe's global availability page lists 51 countries and regions; a company in one of them can use Stripe without a US entity, while Pakistan, Colombia, Peru and Chile are not listed.
Airwallex accepts companies registered in its listed countries, including Brazil, Mexico and India, and states that it cannot process applications from unlisted registration locations.
Foreign entities use IRS Form W-8BEN-E to document their status, and a US customer setting up a supplier abroad may ask for it when the vendor file is created.

USD account without a US company: the short answer

A company does not need to be formed in the US to hold dollars or to be paid in dollars by US customers. It needs an account that gives US payers a familiar way to pay and that accepts companies from its country. There are four ways to hold dollars without a US entity, and they differ in whose name is on the account and how a US customer pays.

Way to hold USD	Account holder	How a US customer pays	Main limit
US account details in your company's own name	Your company, with funds held at the provider's partner banks	ACH or Fedwire, as to a US vendor	The provider must accept your country of registration
Pooled collection details from a platform	The platform, with a reference that identifies you	ACH or wire, quoting the reference	A payment without the reference can be delayed while it is matched
Dollar account at your bank at home	Your company, at its local bank	International wire over SWIFT	Correspondent bank fees and slower arrival; home foreign exchange rules
Dollar stablecoins such as USDC	A wallet or a provider account	On a blockchain, if the customer agrees	Restricted or regulated in several countries; the customer must agree to pay this way

Source: Helm Editorial Team, from the provider pages cited in this guide. As published on 29 October 2026. This table compares account types and is not a ranking.

ACH is the US batch transfer network most companies use to pay vendors. Fedwire is the Federal Reserve's same-day wire system. Both reach only accounts in the United States, which is why US account details matter. SWIFT is the international messaging network banks use for cross-border payments. Our guide to SWIFT, ACH and Fedwire compares the three in detail.

What works without a US company, and what still needs one

Most of what an exporter, agency or software company wants from a USD account works for its home company. The exceptions are products whose own rules require a US business.

Need	Without a US company	Rule or source
Be paid by a US customer by ACH or Fedwire	Yes, with US account details	ACH and Fedwire reach accounts in the US, whoever the holder is
Be paid by international wire	Yes, into any dollar account	SWIFT reaches banks worldwide
Hold USD and pay suppliers in USD	Yes, subject to home-country rules	Your country's foreign exchange rules
Accept card payments through Stripe	Yes, if Stripe lists your country	Stripe lists 51 countries and regions; Pakistan, Colombia, Peru and Chile are not listed
Open a Mercury account	No	Formed and registered in the United States or a US territory
Open a Relay account	No	US-registered businesses with an operating presence in the US
Open a Brex account	No	A valid US incorporation, a US EIN, US operations and a US physical address
Borrow under an SBA loan program	No	Eligible businesses must be located in the US

Sources: Stripe global availability; Mercury eligibility; Relay required documents; Brex account requirements; US Small Business Administration, terms, conditions and eligibility. As published on 29 October 2026.

The SBA (Small Business Administration) is the US government agency whose loan programs help small US businesses borrow from banks. An EIN is the federal tax number the IRS issues to a business.

The list matters because many guides treat a US company as the only way to get a USD account. It is the way to reach US-only products. For receiving and paying dollars, the home company is usually enough.

How US account details work for a company abroad

A provider that serves companies abroad holds customer money at one or more partner banks in the US and issues each customer US routing and account numbers. A routing number (ABA number) is the nine-digit code that identifies a US bank for ACH and Fedwire. The account number identifies your balance. What differs between providers is whose name the details carry and how incoming payments are matched to you.

Question	Details in your company's own name	Pooled details with a reference
What the US customer enters as beneficiary	Your company's legal name	Often the platform's name or a name the platform specifies
How a payment reaches you	By account number alone	By the reference the payer must quote
If the payer omits a reference	The payment still arrives against your account number	The payment can be held while the platform identifies it
Rails accepted	Ask: ACH only, or also Fedwire and SWIFT	Ask: often ACH and wires, sometimes with limits
What your customer's vendor file shows	Your company as a normal vendor	A payee name that may differ from your invoice

Source: Helm Editorial Team. As published on 29 October 2026. Ask each provider for a sample of its account details before you share them.

Two questions settle most of this. Are the details in your company's own name? And which rails do they accept? Details that accept ACH, Fedwire and SWIFT cover every kind of payer: a US customer paying by ACH, a US customer paying a large invoice by wire, and a customer outside the US paying by international wire.

A balance with a non-bank provider is not a bank deposit in your name. How it is protected depends on the provider's license and the rules of the country that licenses it, so ask for the provider's statement on how customer funds are held.

Providers that accept companies registered outside the US

Eligibility is set by each provider's list of countries of registration and addresses. The table records what each states on its own pages; it is not a ranking.

Provider	What its own pages state
Airwallex	Your business must be registered in a supported country or territory, and the Airwallex entity that onboards it depends on that location; Brazil and Mexico are onboarded to its US entity, India and the Philippines to its Singapore entity, and China and Hong Kong to its Hong Kong entity; unlisted locations cannot be processed
Wise Business	USD account details are not available where the business has an address in Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Nigeria or Pakistan, or where the linked personal profile has an address in those countries or Ukraine
WorldFirst	Its South Asia page states that its USD account needs no US-registered business, US bank account or US address, and that the application is online
Mercury, Relay and Brex	Accounts for US companies only, as set out above

Sources: Airwallex, What country does my business have to be registered in; Wise, Can I get USD account details; WorldFirst, Open a USD account in South Asia. As published on 29 October 2026.

Check three things on a provider's own pages before you apply: that your country of registration is listed, that every owner's country of residence is accepted, and that your industry is not restricted. Then ask in writing whose name the details carry and which rails they accept. US banks and their partners must also identify every individual who owns 25% or more of your company; our guide to a US bank account for a foreign company lists the documents a company abroad should prepare.

What your US customers will ask for

When a US company adds a new supplier, its accounts payable team collects the supplier's details once and reuses them for every payment. A supplier abroad with US account details is set up much like a US vendor, with one difference: the tax form.

Item	What to give
Legal name and address	Your company's registered name and address, exactly as on the account details
Bank details for ACH and wires	Bank name, routing number and account number from your provider
Bank details for payers outside the US	The SWIFT code and account details your provider gives for international wires
Tax status	IRS Form W-8BEN-E, the form foreign entities use to document their status
Invoice	Amount in US dollars, due date, invoice number to quote, and one payment route only

Source: IRS, About Form W-8BEN-E; other rows compiled by the Helm Editorial Team. As published on 29 October 2026.

Keep the name on the invoice, the vendor form and the account details identical. A mismatch is the most common reason a customer's payments team holds a first payment for checks. Ask a new customer to send a small first payment and confirm the name and amount that arrive.

Your rules at home come first

A USD account abroad sits inside your own country's foreign exchange and tax rules. Several countries require exporters to bring export proceeds back to a local bank within a set period, including Nigeria, South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. In those countries a USD account abroad works alongside the home bank, not in place of it. Other countries allow proceeds to stay abroad: Brazil's foreign exchange law makes keeping export proceeds abroad optional for the exporter. Our country guides, such as the one on a USD business account in India, set out each position.

Dollar stablecoins carry their own rules, and some countries restrict them for businesses:

United Arab Emirates: the Central Bank's Circular 2/2024 restricts businesses accepting USD stablecoins as payment outside the DIFC and ADGM financial free zones.
Türkiye: the central bank banned the use of crypto assets in payments in 2021.
Egypt: Law 194 of 2020, Article 206, bans crypto activity without a Central Bank of Egypt license.
Brazil: since 2 February 2026, Resolution BCB 521 places international payments with virtual assets inside the foreign exchange market, with a US$100,000 limit for payments by a virtual asset service provider company to a counterparty that is not an authorized foreign exchange institution.

Record balances held abroad with your accountant. Some countries also require a statistical declaration of assets abroad above a threshold.

When forming a US company is worth it

Form a US company when one of the needs marked No in the second section applies to you, not only to get dollars. The common reasons are:

US investors. Y Combinator's standard deal terms state that it invests in corporations based in the United States, the Cayman Islands or Singapore, as reported by BetaKit on 26 January 2026.
US-only products. Mercury, Relay and Brex accept US companies only, and SBA loans are for businesses located in the US.
Stripe in a country it does not list. Stripe's own page lists where businesses can use it; outside that list, founders often form a US company.
US operations. A US office, warehouse, staff or contracts that require a US party usually sit best in a US entity.

A US company is a second company with its own state fees, IRS filings and bank review. For founders weighing that choice, our guide to a business bank account for non-US founders sets out what providers require of the founders themselves.

How to get USD account details for your company, step by step

Confirm your home rules. Ask your bank or accountant whether export proceeds must come home, by when, and whether balances abroad must be declared. This decides whether the USD account holds money or only passes it through.
Shortlist providers by your country of registration. Read each provider's own country list, not a third-party summary, and check that every owner's country of residence is accepted.
Prepare the company file. Certificate of incorporation, a recent registry extract, articles, a list of directors, an ownership chart to every individual with 25% or more, and passports for those owners and for the person who controls the company.
Describe the business precisely. State what you sell, who pays you, who you pay, in which countries and in what monthly amounts. Reviewers ask for this, and clear answers shorten the review.
Ask for a sample of the account details. Check that the beneficiary name is your company's legal name and that ACH, Fedwire and SWIFT are accepted.
Update your invoices and vendor forms. Show one payment route per invoice, keep the name identical everywhere, and have Form W-8BEN-E ready for customers who ask.
Test with one customer. Ask for a small first payment and compare the name, amount and arrival with what you expected before you move every customer across.

The federal identification rule lets a bank or its partner identify a company by its principal place of business, local office or other physical location, and identify a non-US person by passport number and country of issuance (31 CFR 1020.220). A company abroad therefore does not need a US address or a US tax number to be identified, although each provider can set stricter rules of its own.

Where Helm fits

Helm is a financial technology company, not a bank. Accounts are held with regulated partner institutions. Helm gives a company registered outside the US USD account details in its own name, with a routing and account number that receives ACH, Fedwire and SWIFT payments, without a US subsidiary. EUR details with an IBAN and GBP details with a sort code sit alongside.

Collections from buyers abroad can be held in USD or converted.
Suppliers can be paid by SWIFT or by local rails in their currency where available, with the rate, fee and expected arrival shown before sending.
USDC and USDT can be received, sent and converted to USD inside the account, where local law allows.
Supplier finance, receivables finance and working capital are arranged case by case.

Each account has a named account manager, and review questions are answered in writing within one business day. Eligibility depends on the country where the company is registered: Helm cannot currently provide USD account details to companies based in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Morocco, Qatar, Japan or South Korea. Helm agrees pricing with each business in writing before the account opens, and shows the rate, the fee and the expected arrival before you confirm each payment.

Open a Helm account

USD, EUR and GBP accounts in your company's name, with a named account manager.

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Questions

Can I get a USD account without a US company?

Yes. A company registered abroad can get US account details in its own name from a provider that accepts its country, or hold a dollar account at its bank at home. A US company is needed only for US-only products such as Mercury, Relay, Brex and SBA loans.

Can US customers pay my foreign company by ACH?

Yes, if your company has US routing and account numbers. ACH reaches accounts in the US, so details issued in your company's name by a provider with US partner banks can receive ACH like any US vendor.

Do I need a US company to open a Mercury account?

Yes. Mercury's eligibility page requires the business to be formed and registered in the United States or a US territory, with existing or planned US operations.

Which providers give USD account details to companies outside the US?

Each provider publishes its own list. Airwallex accepts companies registered in its listed countries, including Brazil, Mexico and India, and WorldFirst's South Asia page states that its USD account needs no US-registered business. Wise does not offer USD details where the business has an address in Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Nigeria or Pakistan.

What is the difference between named and pooled USD account details?

Named details carry your company's own name, and payments reach you by account number alone. Pooled details belong to a platform account shared by many customers, and the payer must quote a reference, without which a payment can be delayed.

What tax form does a US customer need from a foreign supplier?

Often IRS Form W-8BEN-E, which foreign entities use to document their status. Give it with your legal name, address and bank details when the customer sets you up as a vendor.

Can my foreign company use Stripe without a US entity?

Yes, if Stripe lists your country. Its global page lists 51 countries and regions, with India and Indonesia in preview; Pakistan, Colombia, Peru and Chile are not listed.

Can a foreign company get an SBA loan?

Not as a business abroad. The SBA states that eligible businesses must be located in the US, operate for profit and be small under its size standards.

Can I keep export proceeds in a USD account abroad?

It depends on your country. Nigeria, South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India require exporters to bring export proceeds back to local banks, while Brazil's foreign exchange law makes keeping them abroad optional for the exporter.

Is a USD account with a fintech the same as a US bank account?

Not always. A fintech holds customer money at partner banks and issues US account details, but a balance with a non-bank provider is not a bank deposit in your name. Ask the provider how customer funds are held and protected.

References

HelmHelm is a business account for companies that trade internationally: USD, EUR and GBP accounts, international payments, collections and currency exchange, with a named account manager. Questions: [email protected].

This guide is general information for businesses, not financial, legal or tax advice. Rules, fees and timings were checked against the sources listed on the review date and may change.

USD account without a US company