Can I open a business account and how do they work?

Business accounts are available for companies with single and multiple shareholders in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK.

• The person opening the business account must have a personal Lightyear account and reside where we're offering our services.
• The business must meet our Terms of Service and operate in a non-high risk industry.

We support most standard business structures across all countries where business accounts are available, including private and public limited companies, partnerships, and cooperatives.

Some entity types are not currently eligible, including public sector bodies, charities, and private foundations.

Yes, to open a business account, you need to have a personal Lightyear account first. Both are quick to set up and you can switch between them easily.

Opening a business account is free. There are no custody or monthly fees. See full pricing details here.

Go to your profile and select "Business account". We will guide you through the process.

Once you've submitted your details, our team will take care of the next steps. It may take a couple of business days to complete your onboarding but we'll keep you updated and reach out if we need any additional information about your company.

On the mobile app: go to your profile in the top left corner and select which account you'd like to view, or swipe down from the top of the screen to switch between accounts.

On the web app: select your profile in the top right corner and choose the account you'd like to view from the dropdown.

Lightyear doesn't allow opening multiple business accounts for the same company. However, we can grant access to multiple people for the same business account on request. Access can only be granted by persons with the Right of Representation (the management board). Get in touch with our support team below to set this up.

To place buy orders on your business account, you'll need a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), which is a unique identifier for your company. Find full details about this here: Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) for business.

Deposits work the same way as on a personal account. Just make sure you're depositing into your business account and not your personal one, and that you use your business bank account to do so. Read more about how it works here.

If your business holds instruments with another broker and we offer these on our platform, you can transfer them to Lightyear. Read more from our article How to transfer my portfolio?.

See also: Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) for business and our business page