Do I need a bank account in my holding company to receive money from a SAFE?
I plan to raise capital with SAFE notes, and the SAFE notes are going to be issued by the holding company in Cayman.
When asked if I need a bank account in the Cayman Islands, or can I receive the transfer from the investors to the LLC, the Cayman registration agent told me:
"We strongly encourage clients to open a bank account with Banks where a relationship already exists. Banks in the Cayman Islands are not generally open to opening accounts for persons and companies not resident and with physical presence on the Island. There is no requirement from a Cayman Islands law perspective that the company has a Cayman Islands bank account. The account may be located anywhere in the world."
Given this, my lawyer told me:
"The Cayman company can have an account in a bank that is not in Cayman, how long it takes to open it and who will accept it or not depends on each bank. What I advise you is that if the SAFES are going to be issued by the Cayman company then the bank account is opened by the Cayman company and not by the LLC to avoid later having to do legal and accounting work to justify the entry of the money into the LLC with SAFEs granted by the Cayman company.
The LLC can also have its bank account and the money can go there, but it is more practical accounting and legally speaking for the money to go into the company that grants the SAFE."
So my questions are: 1. Is it really possible to open a bank account in the USA with a company in another country as my lawyer told me? I'm searching the internet and what I understand is that that is not possible. 2. Should I look for another agent in Cayman that provides a Cayman bank account if such a thing exists? Or should I receive payments from the investors in the subsidiary LLC even though the SAFE was made over the company in Cayman? If the latter is so, is there any accounting justification process that I should take into account?
I will continue to seek legal and professional advice. I would just like to know if anyone had similar experiences, considering Cayman is one of the countries accepted by YCombinator and many VC funds.