So we are in the process of opening a relationship for a foreign business entity that was formed outside the U.S. We asked to receive their business formation documents for CIP purposes, but they were received in the foreign language. The new customer states it would be too costly to have them translated into English. They want to provide us a letter from their attorney on the validity of the documents.

What is the common practice for this situation?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

You'll get different answers based on each Bank's CIP. One bank I was at that focused on FBE's was willing to accept foriegn business documents with an attorney opinion letter. Other bank's I've been at would only accept notarized translations. Depending on the profitbaility of the customer, either the Bank or client would pay for it.

IMHO - I don't get how you can possibly rely on an attorney opinion letter as verifying the identity of a FBE.

Thank you for the quick response. I had the same thought about accepting the attorney opinion letter.

Words of advice "never trust the other sides attorney"

I would not open an account for one unless it was the first day of a campaign to open accounts for several and I had access to people with some real expertise so I could set things up correctly.

If you don't have an international department that normally handles this type of transaction - run as fast as you can.