In this article we will show you a list of Offshore banks that can be opened online without visit the branch. For the sake of simplicity we included in the Offshore list Switzerland banks and other european banks where in past it was present the banking secrecy.
Of course, bear in mind that nowadays is almost impossible to obtain the banking secrecy like in the 90s unless you are willing to bank in Liberia (with all the risks connected). It’s obvious that in our era you will not get banking secrecy in Switzerland or Luxembourg if you are a French or Italian citizen! These banks are useful for anyone needs a bank account in another country of his country of residence.
We are not covering USA Banks here.
We are not listing banks that require an introducer.
If you are looking for banks that are bitcoin friendly (even for high amounts), you should check this other article.
Cim Banque allows you to open the account remotely, without visiting the branch. They require notarized identity documents (like passport) to be sent to their branch (usually Lugano). They require a video call to approve your account remotely. They also require an initial funding of at least 5000 CHF or 20000 CHF if you want to be waived of any fess concerning the account opening. They are not bitcoin friendly. The customer service is very rude and uneducated. They can be slow, very slow, especially from 2019. They are expensive: price for a basic individual account can be 360 CHF yearly, and this is only the maintenance fee, SWIFT wires, Forex conversions of currencies are all crazy expensive. Avoid if you can and if you have better options.
Famous or infamous bank owned by Mr. Peter Schiff. The bank was incorporated in St. Vincent & Grenadines, but now they moved to Porto Rico. Not bitcoin/cripto friendly. It’s a good choice if you want to be protected by AEOI and CRS (if you are European). Moreover, the bank can be very difficult to deal with: banks wires, especially the outgoing bank wires, can be very slow to be sent. In fact, the compliance is over active and they usually require an approval for any beneficiary you want to involve in your transactions. Approval means sending contracts, proof of funds, and so on. They lost the intermediary bank (especially for USD but even for EUR currency) several times but it seems that now they found some kind of stability. We do not recommend this bank unless you have no other options. Debit card are also not reliable: the last time all their customers debit card were cancelled overnight. Accounts approval are easy, though. Bitcoin and crypto very unfriendly.
HSBC Expat is a very big bank based in Jersey (Channel Islands). The bank is offering a multi currency account (EUR; USD; GBP): you need to deposit at least 60000 GBP to get an account. Verification is not very easy: you need to talk and understand english well, they require a phone call to open an account with them. The fees are not expensive though.
This bank based in Antigua and Barbuda is offering personal, commercial and private banking solutions. The account approval can be done online, of course, and it’s not very difficult. The bank lost the correspondence bank (it was Deutsche Bank) in 2017. The bank was involved in money laundering scandal in the last two decades. They are not happy to deal with bitcoin exchangers. We do not suggest to keep substantial amount of money with them.
Not to be confused with the regular Lloyds bank, Lloyds international is based in the Channel islands and is serving international customers. Their platform is mostly based on phone banking: if you don’t like phone banking you are out of luck. The website is very well done. A good thing is that they accept SEPA payments (both outgoing and incoming). We don’t suggest to use them with bitcoin exchangers. Account opening need to be done by phone.
AfrAsia bank is authorized by the Bank of Mauritius. They accept online applications. They often require for an introducer but sometimes this requirement can be waived. There are many complaints about this bank online: many are complaining about the very slow answers by their support team. On the other hand, with this bank you get the access to the Mauritius banking environment, which is (I think) much better than the Caribbean one. The Mauritius bank are also using the IBAN standard, so you are lucky if you need to receive payments from Europe. They don’t support SEPA though. We suggest to get an account with MCB (Mauritius Commercial Bank) or SBM (State Bank of Mauritius): but if you cannot fly to Mauritius, you have the option to open an account with AfrasiaBank.
Many consider Caye Bank the best bank in Belize, being Belize Bank International the other option. Of course, banking in Belize is a poor experience at least: you are lucky if you will get your money in a 10 years timeframe, considering the past Belizean banks fiasco. Caye bank seems very very outdated from an European or Asian point of view: it seems crazy but you still need to send a fax with a word password to get your bank wires executed (if their correspondence banks are working). In fact, Caye bank was without correspondence banks for almost 10 months and their clients were trapped in the bank without the possibility to wire their funds for several months. We do not suggest to bank with them unless you are almost desperate. On the other hand, they are honest and they try to do their best with all the problem caused by the correspondence banks and international compliance.
Probably Gordon Gekko was banking in Cayman National Bank (bank was founded in 1974), so it must be good? There are not many complaints concerning this bank online, however it’s not a bank that the usual digital marketer or bitcoin trader is using. The account opening is a very long process with tons of notarized documents to be provided, bank references, professional references: it can be annoying. If you want to open the account remotely, you must be really curious to bank with them. They are reliable in a decent way being in business since 1974. We suggest, though, a visit in their branch if you want to speed up the opening process.
Armenian bank founded in 1910, headquarters in Yerevan. The bank offers remote opening by sending notarized documents. They accept international customers.
Despite the name, this bank has nothing to do with Switzerland. ArmSwissBank is another Armenian bank. It’s a new bank, founded in 2005. Headquarters in Yerevan. They focus on private banking. Despite the word private banking, their fees are pretty cheap and their requirement are easy sustainable. Bear in mind that sending and receiving bank wires from Armenia can rise much more than a red flag, that’s the bad side. We cannot tell about the security of the funds stored here: we cannot suggest to hold a huge amount of assets for obvious reasons.