Multiple Legal Entities
This article will provide an overview of what GoCardless can and cannot do if you wish to process payments for multiple legal entities.
What is a legal entity?
A legal entity is an individual, company, or organisation that has legal rights and obligations.
Click here for a list of the entities that GoCardless can currently onboard in each country.
Does this apply to me?
This will apply to you if your business has more than one legal entity. For example, if your business structure has a limited company in the UK but also a Pty Ltd company in Australia, and you wish to use GoCardless to collect payments for both.
Can I collect payments for more than one entity via the same GoCardless account?
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You can only collect payments on behalf of one legal entity via a single GoCardless account.
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You can collect payments in multiple currencies on behalf of the single entity, however;
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You will need one or multiple bank accounts that support(s) the currencies you are collecting. This/these bank accounts need to be held by the legal entity associated with the account.
Please see below for examples of the ways that you can set up your GoCardless account:
Single currency, one entity:
The model below shows payments being collected from payers, on behalf of one legal entity, in one currency. This is the most common one businesses use GoCardless.
Multiple currencies, one entity:
Within this model, you can request that multiple payment schemes are enabled on your account, e.g. Bacs and SEPA (see here for a guide to requesting schemes.)
You can add up to four payment schemes to your account. For each scheme that you wish to use, you will need a bank account that can receive the currency that you wish to collect. This bank account must be held by the legal entity that you are collecting payments on behalf of.
Please note: You can collect multiple currencies to be paid out to you in your home currency using International Payments .
However, if you wish to receive payouts into a specific bank account for each currency (for example if you have separate bank accounts for EUR, GBP and AUD) you can add these bank accounts to your GoCardless account to go through verification.
Multiple currencies, multiple entities:
If you wish to collect different currencies on behalf of different legal entities, as above, you will need to create multiple GoCardless accounts.
This is due to the fact that a single GoCardless account can only process payments on behalf of one legal entity at any one time.
Why is this the case?
As an FCA regulated payment processing organisation, we are subject to strict compliance procedures. Within this, we are subject to the following (among other requirements):
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Verifying the identity of the legal entity that we are processing payments on behalf of and conducting ongoing monitoring.
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Verifying that the bank account we are placing funds into is held by the legal entity that we are serving.
As a result, each company or legal entity that we serve requires its own individual account.
This allows us to verify the details of the legal entity, approve the payout bank account and issue customer correspondence in line with our regulatory requirements.
I need further assistance.
If you have any questions or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can reach out to us via this form and we will get back to you within one working day.