Banking5 min read
Where a non-resident can still open a bank account outside the US
Every guide to offshore banking lists jurisdictions. None of them lists the four tests you have to pass, which is why people fly somewhere and come home without an account.
The US case has its own answer, set out separately. This is everywhere else — and everywhere else has changed more than the US has. The wave of de-risking that followed the 2016–2018 leak cycle removed most of what used to be called offshore banking, and what replaced it is a set of ordinary banks applying ordinary due diligence, with an unusually low tolerance for customers who cannot explain themselves.
Four gates decide every one of these applications. Jurisdiction choice matters far less than people expect; passing the gates matters far more.
The four gates
- Physical presence. Will they onboard you remotely, or must you appear? For a genuine bank, in almost every jurisdiction below, the answer is that you must appear.
- Minimum relationship. Not the minimum balance to open — the balance below which they do not want the relationship and will close it or price you out of it.
- Source of funds and source of wealth. Two different questions. Where did this money come from, and how did you become the kind of person who has it. Both need documents.
- Entity acceptance. Will they bank a foreign-registered company at all, and specifically one with no operations in their country?
The comparison
| Jurisdiction | Presence needed | Relationship size | Foreign entity? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | Yes, in person, for both personal and corporate | High for non-residents; the meaningful routes are effectively private-banking sized | Reluctant without a Singapore entity and a local director |
| Hong Kong | Yes, in person, with directors attending | Moderate for a Hong Kong company; high otherwise | A Hong Kong company with real activity is workable. A foreign shell is not |
| UAE | Yes, in person | Moderate, with balance requirements that have risen | Requires a UAE licence, and increasingly a real office and a resident signatory |
| Switzerland, Liechtenstein | Yes, in person | The highest on this list — this is private banking, priced accordingly | Yes, for structures with advisers, at that relationship size |
| Georgia, Armenia | Yes, in person, but the visit is short and the process is fast | The lowest on this list | Possible, with more scrutiny since 2022 and slower onboarding |
| Panama | Yes, in person | Moderate | Yes historically, but expect bank and professional reference letters and a multi-week process |
| Cyprus, Malta, Baltic EU | Usually in person | Moderate | Shell-company policies bite here. Entities with no substance, no local nexus and no employees are declined as a matter of policy |
| United Kingdom | Effectively requires UK residence or a UK company with UK-resident directors | Moderate | Difficult for non-resident directors of foreign entities |
| E-money and payment institutions | No — remote onboarding is the product | Low or none | Often yes, and quickly — with the caveat in the next section |
The fintech account is not the same product
The last row of that table solves the access problem and creates two others, and both are worth stating plainly because the marketing does not.
First, your money is safeguarded, not insured. An e-money institution must hold client funds separately at a partner bank rather than lending them out, which is a genuine protection — but it is not a deposit guarantee scheme, and in an insolvency you are a claimant on a segregated pool with an administration process in front of you rather than a depositor with a statutory payout. Deposit protection and bail-in covers the difference.
Second, the account can be closed with very little notice. The economics that let these providers onboard you in ten minutes also let them offboard you on a risk score, and their appetite for the categories founders operate in — crypto adjacency, high-risk merchant categories, multi-jurisdiction flows — changes without announcement. That is the same failure mode as a processor freeze, and it calls for the same answer: a second rail that already exists.
What to prepare before you apply
Assemble this before the first conversation, not after the first request. Having it ready is the single largest determinant of whether an application closes.
- Identity. Passport, and a second photo ID. A proof of address in your name dated within three months — utility bill or bank statement, not a phone bill in most banks' view.
- Tax identity. Your tax identification number and, where you can obtain one, a certificate of tax residence. This resolves the self-certification question before it becomes an issue — see what your bank reports.
- Entity pack. Certificate of incorporation, constitutional documents, register of members and directors, evidence of the beneficial owner, and a certificate of good standing dated recently.
- Source of wealth. Two or three years of personal tax returns, or an employment or sale history that explains the accumulation.
- Source of funds. Signed customer contracts, recent invoices, processor statements, and management accounts showing revenue matching the flows you are describing.
- A one-page business description. What you sell, to whom, in which countries, through which rails, with expected monthly volumes. Write it yourself. Compliance will write one about you otherwise, and theirs will be less flattering.
Do you actually need this?
Ask what the account is for, because three of the four common answers have a cheaper solution.
| What you want | What actually solves it |
|---|---|
| Getting paid by international customers | A processor plus a business account in the country of your entity. An offshore account adds nothing |
| Holding more than one currency | A multi-currency account with a regulated provider, which is a product rather than a jurisdiction |
| A second rail in case the first fails | A genuine second banking relationship — ideally a different institution in a different country, opened before you need it |
| Reducing tax | Nothing. Where you bank has no effect on where you are taxed, and never did |
That last row is the one worth repeating, because it is the premise of most of the writing on this topic. Account location does not determine tax. Residence does, for you, and management does, for your company. Banking somewhere else changes the reporting route and nothing about the liability.
Banking set up alongside the entity
Formation, EIN, address and account applications sequenced so the documents exist before the application asks for them — rather than discovering the gap mid-review.
See the Business OS