My co-worker just tried to open a bank account and was told by the bank that a new law was just passed Sept 30, 2017 which requires foreigners to have an ARC with at least 1 year left before expiration in order to open a new bank account. Doesn’t the government know that the majority of the teachers here in Taiwan have ARCs which are valid for a total of 1-year each time they’re issued? Wouldn’t this make it impossible for foreigners to open bank accounts since they will never be able to meet that requirement?
Which bank?
Did your friend ask the bank to show some kind of source for the law?
He was at a Taipei Fubon Bank. No he didn’t ask, but I’m tempted to go to another bank and find out if this is true.
as far as i knew you only needed an ID number not an ARC to open a bank account.
This sounds highly unlikely. Your friend was lied to in order to make them go away. Possibly a face issue if s/he was talking in English.
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Same here. If it’s a bank account, all you need is your ID number/ARC. If it’s a credit card, that’s a different story.
This could be the case of the banker just not wanting to open up a bank account for your friend because it’s a hassle and requires extra paperwork/forms. In that case, your friend shouldn’t give that bank any of his/her business.
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I just asked a similar question in another thread. I have heard you need ARC in order to open a bank account in Taiwan. Here some of you are saying you don’t really need ARC. Could you please tell me which banks do not require having ARC if you want to open a regular saving account and get a debit card.
I understand what was previously needed to open bank accounts. The thing in question is whether a new law was passed or not. He even had his school’s accounting department call the bank and the bank said the same thing to the accounting department. They said it’s a new law that was passed Sept 30, 2017. I am investigating and will be checking with some other banks in the upcoming week. I’ll post an update once I find out more.
They always ask for your passport and not your ARC.
I was told different. Which bank do you have your account in?
I also have Taipei Fubon Bank along with other banks. But all these were opened before Sept 30, 2017, so there was never an issue. I keep you guys posted what I find out.
I’m curious…is your friend visiting the same branch and same banker as you?
You need a bank account for getting paid by your company, which in most of the cases is the ARC sponsor…
There are many other reasons for opening an account.
Its probably because Taiwanese banks have been caught laundering money and most recently they stopped large bitcoin related movements of money.
Yes, but my point is: it is weird that you have be have hold an ARC card for one year BEFORE you can open your first bank account given that most of the ARC holders are so because they are sponsored by a company, which needs their employees to have a bank account for making their monthly payments…
one time i bought a deal that was 6 months worth of 3G(or 4G?) for my sim card. when it finished i went to the phone store only to find out that my number had been cancelled. because if you don’t top up in 6 months… your number will be cancelled. why offer the friggen 6 month deal in the first place then? somebody didn’t think that one through. i was livid.
The claim doesn’t make sense, but if you get them to write down the name of the supposed law and hopefully the article (條款) number, we can check it.
There are some financial/economic entries for Sep. 30 here, but it would be tedious to read through all of them.
http://law.moj.gov.tw/News/news_list.aspx?TPage=3
The Taipei Fubon representative just called me back and told me that their HQ just retracted the memo and are now allowing new accounts to be opened again. (ARC must have a minimum of 6 months until expiration date.) If it really was a new government rule, how can their HQ just not follow it? I don’t know, sounds really weird to me. Anyways, everything sounds like back to normal for now. I’m still waiting to hear back from another bank I checked with to cross reference.
yea sounds like bollocks. passing the buck as usual i’m sure.