Be honest about whether this is your bank
FAB's corporate operation is built around substantial businesses. If you incorporated last month, hold a free-zone licence with one shareholder and no trading history, an application here is likely to be a slow way of arriving at a no.
That is not a criticism of the bank and it is not a reason to avoid it later. It is a reason to open your first account somewhere that banks new companies routinely, trade for a year, and come to FAB with statements in hand. We would rather say that now than take you through an application we can see the end of.
Where FAB does make sense, it makes a great deal of sense: trade finance, multi-currency treasury, regional payments at volume, and the kind of relationship banking a growing group eventually needs.
What strengthens the application
Audited financials, or at least a full year of statements from an existing account.
Real counterparties — named customers and suppliers, with contracts.
Turnover that justifies the relationship. A corporate bank is pricing the relationship, not the account.
A resident shareholder or a resident manager with signing authority.
Group structure documented properly, including ultimate beneficial ownership, where the company sits under a holding entity.
What the process looks like
Preparation
Corporate documents, ownership chain, and the financial history that supports the size of relationship you are asking for.
Relationship discussion
What the company needs from the bank — payments, facilities, currencies — rather than simply "an account".
Compliance and onboarding
Detailed, and proportionate to the structure. A multi-layer ownership chain takes longer than a single shareholder.
Facilities, if any
Credit and trade lines are assessed separately from the account itself and on their own timetable.
Terms and eligibility
As with every bank on this site, we do not publish FAB's charges, balance requirements or eligibility rules. They are set by the bank, they change, and a consultancy quoting them from memory is how a client ends up budgeting against a number nobody at the bank recognises.
Where OMC comes in
OMC has opened over a thousand UAE bank accounts across more than ten banks, and the value of that is mostly in knowing which door to knock on. For FAB specifically, the useful thing we do is tell you whether your company is ready — and, when it is not yet, which bank to start with so that it will be.
First Abu Dhabi Bank P.J.S.C. (FAB). Reviewed 22 July 2026. Account terms and eligibility are set by the bank and change. Confirm them with us or with the bank before you rely on them.
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