Bank accounts
Recently major banks in Spain claim to enforce anti-money laundering laws, making it increasingly difficult for Chinese people to open accounts. A few years ago you could open a bank account with a passport, but now you are asked to provide a whole bunch of documents.
First of all, before you continue reading, you can check the following articles and choose your convenient bank or savings account:
Credit cooperative where you can open bank accounts in Spain
Banks where you can open accounts as foreigners in Spain
What documents are needed to open a bank account?
In fact, the Spanish anti-money laundering law does not specify what documents must be submitted to open a bank account. Banks enforce the law on their own, so each bank has different requirements. Some are strict, some are not. To be honest, it often depends on whether the bank clerk has the right attitude and wants to do business with you or not. Copyright
Spanish banks have the obligation to verify the identity of the account holder and the origin of the funds. This is because if a user uses the convenience of the bank to launder money, then the bank will be implicated and fined a huge amount of money. Because many of them are extra careful.
According to the above, the documents needed to open an account, can be divided into two categories:
1. Identity documents.
The law does not say that you must have a legal identity in Spain to open an account with a bank, but only requires the bank to ask the user for proof of identity documents. It is up to the bank to decide exactly how to enforce this. Most banks require that the user has a legal identity in Spain.
Most banks will also ask for a foreigner’s identification number (NIE) if they do not have legal residence in Spain. For example, foreigners who are investing in Spain and want to apply for a non-profit residence or investment residence can apply for an NIE number before applying for a bank account. The NIE number means that the user is registered with the Spanish police and therefore his or her identity can be confirmed.
In addition, it is difficult to find banks that allow you to open a bank account with a passport. There is no law that says you cannot open an account with a passport, but many banks do not want to take the risk and therefore do not allow foreigners who are not EU nationals to open an account with a passport. However, in many cases, in order to do more business, banks require life insurance or health insurance in order to allow passport accounts.
It is also important to note that some strict banks will not allow you to open an account if your residence has expired and is in the process of being extended. It is important to note that the law only requires the bank to verify the identity of the user, and it is up to the bank to determine the exact measures to be taken.
2.Documents proving your financial resources.
The law requires the bank to know the economic purpose of the user (for example, opening an account for daily use, savings, salary deposit, etc.) and the user’s economic activity or source of income. On this point, the law only requires banks to obtain economic information from the user and does not specify specific documents to be required. When banks enforce it, most of them ask the user for documents that prove the source of funds (e.g. pay slips, tax slips, Modelo 036, etc.). We will explain this below.
If people want to immigrate to Spain and need to open an account for any reason, then they can also submit proof of financial capacity from your origin country, but they need to be translated as well as certified. Strict banks will also require double certification. The exact measures depend on each bank.
What financial documents do workers need to open an account?
If you are a worker, for banks that are not strict, it is usually sufficient to submit a work contract, the last few months of pay stubs and RENTA (personal income tax). The employment contract proves that the applicant is currently earning income and the pay stub proves the amount of income. Conversely, the RENTA proves how much income the application has declared to the IRS. With this information, the bank will notice if the user has money transactions in the bank that are beyond his income. com
In addition, since work contracts and pay slips are private documents (they are issued by the employer and are not official documents) and only prove the current income of the user, more strict banks also require the submission of social security history (vida laboral), as it records the history and length of the worker’s insurance and proves how long the worker has been insured.
In addition, if the user has an account at another bank, he or she may be asked to submit other bank statements. In this case, if the user is earning money from other accounts, they can better monitor the user’s money transactions.
There are various documents that can be used to prove financial capability, and depending on the requirements of each bank, it is not necessary to submit all of them. You can just choose according to your situation.
What financial documents are required to open an account with the boss?
Since the boss does not have a work contract and payroll, you need to submit the last few months of the boss’s insurance deductions and quarterly tax statements. Of course, RENTA is also indispensable.
Depending on the situation, the bank may also ask for the rent tax (115), the workers’ tax (111) and the IVA (303 and 330).
In addition, the tax office registration form MODELO 036 is also a common document, as it contains information about the user’s store and industry, and details of the taxes to be paid. All rights reserved .
Of course, the more strict banks will also require the above mentioned insurance history (vida laboral) and other bank statements.
What if the bank does not open an account even after I have submitted all the documents?
According to the current law, the bank cannot refuse to open an account for a user without reason if the user submits all the documents. This is because every user has the right to have a “basic bank account “. If the bank refuses to open an account then you have the option to file a complaint.
You can do this by filling out a complaint form.
As a general rule of thumb, when you have difficulties opening a bank account, you can take legal action, although it is very slow in Spain. Often it takes a long time to get a solution after a complaint, or it is simply not resolved. Therefore, it is often necessary to rely on eloquence to reason with the bank clerk.
How to open a student account?
Since students have no income in Spain, many banks require proof of income documents from parents in your country. This is more troublesome and strict banks will also require translation plus notary certification. There are even times when yes, even after submitting these documents, it is not yet possible.
If the student is studying in Spain on a scholarship, then it is relatively easy to get a certificate of receiving the scholarship.
For students to open a bank account, it is recommended to look for a bank branch that cooperates with the school or a bank branch within the campus. Because these branches know the student’s situation and it is easy to talk to them. If you go to a branch outside of the school, you may not be able to solve the problem even after a lot of effort. Because the law literally says that the bank has the right to ask the account holder to submit financial documents, and if the user refuses to submit them, then the bank will not provide service.
Previously, some students also reported that they could try to find some smaller bank branches. These branches, in order to increase the number of customers and turnover, can open an account as long as the user buys a bundled life insurance policy.
