Question Any one banking or plan to bank in El Salvador?

[Wave!]

The news yesterday got the whole crypto community excited (ES, as the world's first, accepted Bitcoin as legal tender and plans to offer citizenship to those investing at least 3 BTC in the country).

Did a bit of reseearch, it was one of those US-backed banana republics but is relatively stable and democratic today.

Not sure if foreigners could apply for the tax number (Número de Identificación Tributaria) though, let alone applying online.

Any personal experiences?

 

[Allisgood]

It’s not citizenship for 3BTC. It’s just permanent residency.

 

[troubled soul]

Just some info , Hope this help

CRIME: El Salvador has one of the highest homicide levels in the world and crimes such as extortion, assault, and robbery are common.

Typical crimes in El Salvador include extortion, mugging, highway assault, home invasion, and car theft. Shootouts between rival criminal gangs and between police and criminal gangs are common. Home invasions and/or burglaries of residences during broad daylight occur in affluent residential neighborhoods in San Salvador. Some of these home invasions are committed by individuals posing as deliverymen or as police officers.

U.S. Embassy personnel are advised not to walk, run, or cycle in the unguarded streets and parks of El Salvador, even in groups.

 

[Wave!]

Just some info , Hope this help

oh wow the US DoS report did mention gang violence but this is much worse than I expected lol

 

[uplana]

Second thread about this shithole, why are people coming here and post about a part of this world that should not exists or be far out on the ocean isolated and cold as hell?

 

[NicolasMaduro]

Would be sad to have "made it". Have enough money to live a decent life, and then get killed in a s**t hole.

 

[bizniz]

El Salvador is a pretty dangerous place, but each to his own. To give a serious answer to the question, I don't see it as a feasible place for serious banking right now. I would certainly consider getting permanent residence there though. Any residence is good to have - you never know when it might come in useful.

 

[Tr0nad0r]

I don't think El Salvador is a good place to have a bank account, one of the reasons for the popularity of BTC (beyond the usage in illegal activities) is the rejection of the population to the local banks.

Most of the locals don't use bank accounts and prefer cash and most of the remittances (that represent a big percentage of the GDP of the country) are done through cash pickups (e.g in Western Union), crypto has some potential in this area as a bridge to send money avoiding WU or bank fees but I don't think its legal usage will expand much beyond this.

To reply to your question, as foreign I doubt you will be able to apply to banks in El Salvador, the two biggest banks Davivienda and Banco Agricola (Bancolombia) apply the same rules for all the countries in the region, they don't accept foreign clients without a residence permit and if you have a temporary residence permit they'll cancel your account as soon as it expires. Although they're happy to accept you as a foreign client in their Panamian branches (Bancolombia Panama and Davivienda Panama).

 

[Vor]

I'd only move there if I wanted to get my toe nails removed one by one while being told to hand over my private keys lol. Any crypto "investor"(gambler) who moves there is either suicidal or brain dead.

 

[troubled soul]

So many crypto investor forget the the thing "KEY"
All your crypto holding is secure by "KEY".
You can lose all your money in second .
Crypto is not a tradition bank.
decentralized system has its own disadvantage.
Not only this country , It is very dangerous to declare that you have crypto holding.

 

[Wave!]

Thanks to all your replies haha
Yeh sounds like I should wait until another country (that's much safer than ES) declares the same

 

[Tr0nad0r]

Some lawmakers in Panama started to talk about the topic some months ago (Panamanian Lawmakers to Hold Discussions on Regulating Cryptocurrencies in the Country – Regulation Bitcoin News) and look like they will be discussing it again since they don't want to "left behind" after the announcement of El Salvador:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1401965129051389958

 

[troubled soul]

For banana republic , Crypto is like gold mine.
Sooner or later all banana republic will accept bitcoin as Legal tender.
Even in 2021 so many banana republic your can deposit large amount of cash without any problem.

 

[Tr0nad0r]

For banana republic , Crypto is like gold mine.
Sooner or later all banana republic will accept bitcoin as Legal tender.
Even in 2021 so many banana republic your can deposit large amount of cash without any problem.

I can confirm this is 100% true based on my experience living in a banana republic

 

[Mark Rucken]

For banana republic , Crypto is like gold mine.
Sooner or later all banana republic will accept bitcoin as Legal tender.
Even in 2021 so many banana republic your can deposit large amount of cash without any problem.

Yes, but those banana republics are one by one being isolated by the regulated western countries. I remember when 5-6 years ago you could open an account for Seychelles IBC in pretty much any country in Europe. Now that is impossible.

Cool, you can get an account in El Salvador, but if you do business in Germany for example, no one will want to work with you once they see wiring instructions.

 

[uplana]

Cool, you can get an account in El Salvador, but if you do business in Germany for example, no one will want to work with you once they see wiring instructions.

this time I have to agree with you. It's make things unnecessary complicated and actually useless.

I would rather go with some of the anonymized solutions in mentor group then considering a single second El Salvador as a destination for my money.

 

[Martin Everson]

Seriously anyone go there and walk around down town in evening smelling of foreigner and tell us how it is.

P.S At least post a BTC address before you go so we can all chip in for your bodies repatriation.

 

[JackAlabama]

So many crypto investor forget the the thing "KEY"
All your crypto holding is secure by "KEY".
You can lose all your money in second .
Crypto is not a tradition bank.
decentralized system has its own disadvantage.
Not only this country , It is very dangerous to declare that you have crypto holding.

Not much different than declaring to have 500M $ on my bank or with your cards and you are "taken" to the next atms.
Equally can you get kidnapped and ransom will be demanded.
Also there are very rich people (by western standards) living in s-holes like here in Africa. I got a friend whos worth several hundreds of millions of us$, just living down the road from my place in the best part of town in a penthouse, because they love their homeland.
Equally you have those who of course go to places like Dubai (which is popular in Africa) and enjoy the good and safe sleep at night and being able to stroll thru the streets at 2am.

You can also custody crypto with banks or with private institutions like xapo Xapo

 

[JackAlabama]

Yes, but those banana republics are one by one being isolated by the regulated western countries. I remember when 5-6 years ago you could open an account for Seychelles IBC in pretty much any country in Europe. Now that is impossible.

Cool, you can get an account in El Salvador, but if you do business in Germany for example, no one will want to work with you once they see wiring instructions.

It depends on your business, but if you have the typical average newspaper reading person as customer, they will anyway expect a local entity and for compliance heavy stuff you gotta be in the eu for anything being wired to make life easy.

 

[smartchoice]

I think Paraguay is a better alternative to El Salvador.