Individual e-bank account within EEA for non-EEA citizen

[Evidence Alpha]

Hi,

After a visit, I was surprised to learn that the spanish banks no more accept individuals from Andorra while they were in the past.

I found www.boursorama.com in France which is a neo e-bank accepting some non-EEA individual acconts for almost no fees, through an application by mail. This solution does not seem well known.

I would like to learn if you’re aware of other equivalent real banks in other EEA countries, offering remote applications. In the UK maybe ?

 

[Martin Everson]

Opening an EU retail customer account as a non-EEA resident is gonna become a thing of the past . It is just something you are gonna have to get used too and make plans for today.

 

[Martin Everson]

It's still possible in Hungary, we have good network of banks there. But of course, only through good connections. They still accept personal accounts for non-EU, Russian/CIS, Asian clients without significant deposit. Banks like OTP, UniCredit can do that. But you need to find a good contact who helps you, don't go simply to a branch And be sure they will ask for your taxpayer number and exchange your information in case your country is under CRS.

Bank introductions are nice but thats not how internal compliance works. There is a fire wall between a banker and compliance department. Unless you have direct connection to compliance officer you will have your work cutout.

 

[Martin Everson]

Well, we work with one of the directors and before client is coming he obtains internal pre-approval

Director, CEO, Shareholder, daughter of the president does not matter. There is a firewall between them and compliance - this is compliance 101 page 1. The compliance officer decides everything and not the director of a bank...period!!! If the Director is able to override a compliance officer or is in cahoots with them then that is banana republic bank. You mention Montenegro, Belarus, Romania well that answers the banana republic part at least .

 

[Bmw850]

There is no real banks with cool compliance. They got rules and it s like a government into a government. They are even not reachable at phone by the public.

But I remember few years ago I was opening accounts at sberbank in a little hole city in Russia. I knew the director, the wife of the director, the children and almost the grandparents ( humor). Yes when you have good connections everything is possible. The director and his troops have been fired and all my accounts closed.

I guess in this business everything is possible.. With a bit of money and connections.

 

[Mark Rucken]

Well, we work with one of the directors and before client is coming he obtains internal pre-approval. That is how it works there (and also in other countries we work - Montenegro, Belarus and Romania). Of course, I don't know about other experiences - I'm qualified to speak only about our own. I'm sure with direct connections in the banks it works pretty much the same, probably also for you.

I co-sign, all of this. That is exactly how things work in some if not most banks.