Source of funds: what to show, what to skip
"Source of funds" is the question that turns a ten-minute onboarding into a three-week one. Not because the answer is hard, but because people answer the wrong question. The analyst is not asking how rich you are. They are asking whether the specific money you will deposit has a paper trail that ends at a legitimate activity.
Two different questions
- Source of funds is about the deposit you are about to make. Where did this money come from?
- Source of wealth is about you. How did you accumulate what you own overall?
Small personal accounts only ask the first. Private banking, brokerage accounts and anything above roughly one hundred thousand dollars ask both. Answer the one that was asked.
One activity, one document
Pick the single activity that produced the money and back it with the single strongest document for that activity. Stacking five weak documents reads as evasive; one strong document reads as obvious.
| Activity | Strongest document |
|---|---|
| Salary | Last three payslips, or an employment contract plus one bank statement showing the salary landing |
| Freelance or consulting | Two or three invoices plus the statement lines that paid them |
| Company profits | Dividend resolution or distribution statement, plus the company's last accounts |
| Sale of a company | Share purchase agreement and the completion statement |
| Sale of property | Notarial deed of sale and the settlement statement |
| Inheritance | Grant of probate or the notary's certificate of inheritance |
| Crypto | Exchange statement showing the fiat off-ramp, plus the original purchase record if the position is old |
| Savings | Statements from the previous bank covering six to twelve months |
Crypto, specifically
Crypto is not a red flag by itself. An unexplained crypto balance is. The file that passes shows a continuous chain: fiat in (bank statement), purchase (exchange history), holding (wallet address you can sign from if asked), sale (exchange history), fiat out (the statement of the account you are now transferring from). Institutions that grade themselves "crypto friendly" in our database still expect that chain. The ones graded "hostile" will reject the file even when the chain is perfect, so do not waste the attempt.
What to leave out
- Do not volunteer a second source. If salary explains the deposit, do not add "and some trading".
- Do not send a full-year bank statement when three months answer the question. The analyst has to read every page you send.
- Do not send a net-worth summary you wrote yourself. It carries no weight and invites questions about every line.
- Do not explain in the cover note why the structure is legitimate. If you feel the need to explain, the document is wrong.
The wording
If a free-text field asks for the source, write one sentence in the past tense with a number: "Consulting income invoiced to two EU clients, 2025, around 90,000 EUR, see attached invoices." Not "various professional activities".