How to open a bank account in 50 different countries

George Benaroya
4 min readMar 11, 2023

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In my opinion, banks created Bitcoin by making it difficult for people to open a bank account.

Therefore, I tested the process of opening a bank account worldwide. I’ve traveled to every country in the world and lived in nine countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, which made it easier for me to do it.

This time, however, the bankers didn’t come to my office, and my assistant didn’t fill out the forms for me. I went to each bank, stood in line like everyone else, and filled out the documents one by one myself. When searching for banks on Google Maps, I was amazed at how badly consumers ranked them. The largest global banks in New York City get two to three stars, and the feedback from clients is awful.

With the support of graduate students at NYU (New York University), we opened bank accounts in dozens of countries. Click on the link on the next page to understand what it takes to open a bank account in each country as:

-A citizen or resident of that country

-An international student

-A tourist

Click on the link below each flag to access each article. More countries are listed below, with the links

United States
Belgium
Bank of China
China, Beijing
China, Shangai
China, Ningxia
China, ICBC Bank
China, Merchants Bank
Germany
Iceland
India
Japan
Malta
Nepal
New Zealand
Panama
Philippines
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia Updated 2023
Spain
Sri Lanka
Switzerland
Thailand
UAE
Vietnam

Or click on the links:

United States

Australia

Belgium

China, Bank of China China, Beijing China, Shangai, China, Ningxia China ICBC Bank China Merchants Bank

Germany

Iceland

India

Italy

Hong Kong

Japan

Japan Business Bank Account

Malta

Nepal

New Zealand

Panama

Philippines

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia updated 2023

Spain

Sri Lanka

Switzerland

Taiwan

Thailand

UAE

Vietnam

To contribute to this project by adding information, please email bg97@nyu.edu.

My book “How to Make Money” is available on Amazon (click here).

Follow me on Linkedin or Medium George Benaroya

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George Benaroya
George Benaroya

Written by George Benaroya

VP Finance, Global Controller, CFO | P&G, Tetra Pak, Nivea| Strategy executed in 180 countries ►Profitable growth| NYU Faculty

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