First: get the money out
- Read the closure or restriction notice twice. It states the effective date and how remaining funds are returned. Follow those instructions exactly and reply in writing.
- Confirm the destination for the balance and keep screenshots of every screen and email. If the notice gives you a window to move funds yourself, use it before the date.
- Download your statements and transaction history now, while you still can log in. Your accountant will need them, and so will the next bank.
- If anything is unclear, ask through the channel in the notice and keep the thread. Do not open a second account with the same platform to "fix" it.
Why it happened
Mercury describes itself on its own site as "a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank", with banking services provided through partner banks. A fintech decides who it can serve according to its partner banks' and its own compliance rules, and those rules change. In July 2024 it announced it would close accounts for customers in several prohibited countries by 22 August 2024, citing updated eligibility criteria "for individuals and businesses in specific countries due to compliance reasons". In early 2026 founders shared a new notice that accounts for businesses with addresses in prohibited countries would close from 1 May 2026, and asked in public whether this was the end for non-US founders.
Mercury keeps its prohibited-countries list on its help center. Third-party guides describe eligibility as based on where the owners live rather than their passports; check the list itself, because it is the only version that counts. The point for you is not the detail of one policy. It is that an account which exists at the pleasure of a platform's eligibility rules can end when the rules move, and you will not be told by someone who knows you.
What to tell customers and platforms
- Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal, Amazon: update the payout bank account before the next payout date. A payout to a closed account is delayed, not lost, but you do not want to test that.
- Customers who pay you by wire or ACH: send the new details from your usual email address and confirm by phone if the amounts are large. Fraudsters use exactly this moment.
- Subscriptions and vendors that pull from the account: move them, then cancel the old details.
The mistake most founders make next
The reflex is to open another fintech within the hour. It is remote, it is fast, and it puts you back exactly where you were (real bank or fintech explains the difference): a customer of a software company whose partner banks set the rules, whose eligibility can change by residence, and who has never met you. Each platform has its own residency and address requirements, and they move too.
A founder on the thread about Mercury's 2026 notice wrote that it "was the only bank that offered accounts without being physically present". That sentence is the whole problem. The remote path has one door, and it is not yours.
If your country is on the list
The 2024 and 2026 notices were about where a business and its owners are located, not about their passports. If your country of residence is on Mercury's list, there is no appeal that changes the geography, and the next platform reads the same list from the same partner banks. Sanctions rules apply to every US institution, so residents of sanctioned countries face limits everywhere; for everyone else the question is not the country, it is the kind of institution.
A chartered bank verifies you in person, on its own terms, and does not depend on a partner's eligibility file. That is why the founders our team walks into a branch include residents of countries the remote platforms have stopped serving.
The permanent fix: an account at a bank that is the bank
Our clients hold personal and business accounts at Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Truist and Capital One, opened in person, in a branch, with a banker who was introduced to them before they flew. Richard, a UK software founder, holds accounts at Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo after his Miami trip, and a six-figure Chase credit line the day after it. A GTM agency co-founder from Cyprus described the visit: "Chase, you went there with me, you knew the banker, so that always helps."
A chartered bank can close an account too. The difference is that you are a customer of the institution itself, in your own name, with a person who knows your file, and a track record the bank can see. That is a relationship, and relationships are what non-resident banking has always run on.
What that takes
- An ITIN, so the bank can identify you inside the US system. Layer one.
- A US company with its EIN, set up in a state and with documentation a bank accepts.
- The file the banker asks for, prepared in advance, and an introduction to the banker.
- One trip to Miami, one banking day, personal and business accounts at more than one institution.
An e-commerce founder from Latvia described what changed afterwards: "When I told the warehouse I have Bank of America and Chase, oh, you are set up, all good."
The timeline you can plan around
The ITIN is the long pole: the IRS says to allow about seven weeks for a decision, nine to eleven in peak season or from overseas. The company and its EIN run alongside it. The banking day is one day. We do not promise dates, because the IRS and the banks set them, but the order is fixed and every step is one you can start this week.
The card approval that follows the accounts is guaranteed in your agreement. The accounts are not the finish line; they are what makes the rest possible.