From what I read, it used to be easier to open bank accounts as non-residents in Hong Kong and Singapore. Even without that much money. But nowadays, foreigners officially can only open the priority/offshore banking account like DBS Treasures. In Singapore. That DBS one requires 350k SGD. So, 4 mil NTD mentioned above is not enough.
I’ve also been reading tourists not being able to open normal bank accounts in Hong Kong as they used to. Probably a bad idea anyways considering the current situation.
No idea about Singapore, but Asian countries are putting more and more restrictions for wire transferring money out of the country. Probably the main reason some people want to keep their money elsewhere.
It used to be very easy to open personal bank accounts in HK, even for tourists without any resident visas or HK ID cards. Now without HK ID, working/student/dependent visa and local address proof is basically impossible, unless you are willing to make a substantial deposit. It was also the case in Mainland China, some time ago (2014 at the latest) you could just walk to a branch and open an account with your passport and foreign phone number.
From more googling, it seems Portuguese banks are pretty open to non-residents. Unlike in other EU countries. Technically, the often-recommended N26 requires a German/EU residence.
Probably not the worst option, if your aim is just to park some money in EUR or USD. And don’t have enough money to open a priority bank account in Singapore. A real bank is a step-up from services like Wise/Transferwise or Revolut.
Some can be open remotely like Atlantico, but it has a monthly fee and a lot of other fees. Supposedly some banks doesn’t have monthly fee, you just need to come in person with enough documents.
edit: I just checked Activo, an often recommended bank. And it doesn’t accept non-residents anymore. So, my guess is they’ll close the ability to open an account as non-residents in other banks too, soon or later. Perhaps it’s already impossible.
I remember being able to open a bank account in Germany as long as you got your residence registered at the local rathaus. That’s all they needed for a proof of address. I do not know if this has changed.
In which case they will also expect you to pay tax on your worldwide income usually. So probably not a good idea to register residence in Germany just for opening a bank account.
Anmeldung-ing is also a fairly strict requirement for opening a bank account, rather than “all they needed” (and it’s mandatory anyway if living in Germany more than very briefly, as far as I remember). It’s not really a convenient way of getting an overseas bank account, and would affect things like mandatory health insurance contibutions.
Just for context, the original thread was about the usual difficulty of getting a credit card in Taiwan. Someone suggested to just open a DBS Treasures account in Singapore if you have a lot of money.
If you follow the rules, you can only open a German bank account if you live there. So a bit irrelevant for people who reside in Taiwan.
Not necessarily residence, but definitely proof of ties to the country. But I agree and that was basically my point: Doesn’t really hep anyone living in Taiwan.
On the other hand, open an account in one’s country of citizenship might work in many cases. Not all banks will allow it, but some might. I guess that would be the best bet to have an overseas account as someone who doesn’t have some 100k USD lying around.