UAE Banking Updates (2021)

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Today we will be discussing banks in UAE. I have been talking to many different bankers and opened multiple bank accounts for people, so I'm going to share my experiences.

I'm loosely going to divide banking into four categories.
The first category is local banks: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, etc.
The second category is foreign banks: HSBC, Standard Chartered, Citi, etc.
The last two are business accounts and wealth management.
Normally, all of these banks would cover more areas, but this division makes it easier to understand the principle.

A personal bank account is going to be the easiest one to get. The most difficult will be business bank accounts or wealth management accounts.

In theory you could open a bank account in UAE as a foreigner without Emirates ID, but in practice, this will be hard.
Also, whether you actually live in UAE or not will make a big difference for banking. Having the actual local address will help a lot.

If you have Emirates ID, but do not have a local address, your best way to get banking is to go to one of the local banks. These banks should be easy to open a bank account. You will need an UAE phone number, and you will need to stay long enough in UAE in order to obtain a debit card.

Also, it is very important to keep in mind that your card will be in AED, and this is where they'll be taking fees from. Even if you have lots of money in your USD account, but your AED account runs out they will not be able to charge fees and might shut down your account. It is very important to keep your AED balance at all times.
Once your debit card arrives you will need to pick it up in person.

If you want more sophisticated banking you can opt-in for wealth management. In this case, your minimum deposit will be around 100 000 USD. Lots of the paperwork, in this case, can be done remotely, but it is still good to have a local address.

Many foreign banks such as HSBC will not let you open a bank account unless you have a local address.
Also, they will not want to deal with you if you come from an EEA country unless you actually live in UAE.
This is something to be aware of.

If you want to open a local business account, this shouldn't be a problem if you have a local company.

As a general rule, if you want to increase your odds of having a bank account open you should op in for more services that the bank offers so they can generate fees of you.

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Видео UAE Banking Updates (2021) канала Offshore Citizen