Banking in Paraguay (2026): opening an account as a foreigner

The order that works: cédula, then bank

The residency process ends in a cédula from the National Police, and your RUC (tax number) is then issued under the same number: see the residency guide. Four banks publish their digital-account rules on their own sites and all start from the cédula:

We could not verify how the other major banks (Continental, Visión, Atlas, Basa, GNB, BNF, Bancop) treat foreign clients, so we do not list their rules. A portal for foreigners says some banks allow passport-only simplified accounts with low caps for non-residents, but that is a weak source: ask the bank in writing.

What the bank must ask you

Seprelad Resolution 70/2019 sets the anti-money-laundering floor for banks. For an individual the bank must collect full names, ID, nationality, address, contact details, the purpose of the relationship, occupation and employer, a sworn declaration of the origin of money or assets, documents proving income and your politically-exposed-person status. Nationality, residence, source of funds and PEP status feed the bank's risk score, so being a foreigner is a scoring factor, not a bar. Enhanced checks are mandatory for politically exposed people and for legal entities not domiciled in Paraguay. If the bank cannot complete its checks it must refuse to start the relationship, which explains refusals without explanation. A simplified regime applies to a national-currency savings account or credit card with monthly movement up to 3 minimum wages (6 with income proof).

The resolution text we used comes from a legal-database copy; the separate PEP resolution (Seprelad 50/2019) is a scanned PDF we could not read.

The June 2026 working group

On 5 June 2026 the Vice-Minister of Industry led a first meeting with the Ministries of Industry and Finance, Seprelad, SUACE, the bank association and the banking and risk supervisors to ease account opening for foreign investors, starting with Investor Pass applicants. The idea reported is that banks could reuse documentation already verified at the Ministry of Industry, not drop any requirement, and the group set about 60 days for a proposal. We found no published outcome, so do not assume account opening has become easier.

Deposit insurance, cash and transfers

• Deposit guarantee fund: up to 75 monthly minimum wages per person per bank (₲217,428,600 in a central-bank slide of October 2025; at the 1 July 2026 minimum wage of ₲3,044,000 that is ₲228.3 million by our arithmetic). It covers foreign-currency and non-resident deposits. The state bank BNF is outside the fund and has a State guarantee instead.
• Cash across the border: no maximum, but declaration is mandatory above US$10,000 or equivalent.
• Transfers: we found no personal cap. When you wire money abroad to pay for imported goods, Seprelad Resolution 56/2019 makes the bank report each transfer to Customs (you must authorise it) or refuse it; it is not a general cap on personal transfers.
• Foreign-currency accounts: the banking law leaves foreign-currency operations to central-bank rules and we found no cap on such accounts.
• Bank secrecy (Law 861/96): banks may not disclose client operations without written consent, with exceptions including the central bank, courts and tax authorities under conditions.

Tax on bank interest and crypto

Interest, commissions and yields on deposits in Paraguayan banks and financieras are exempt from personal income tax (IRP), and so is the exchange difference on foreign-currency deposits. The 8% capital-income rate applies to other capital income, not to local deposits. Under DNIT General Resolution 47/2026 (March 2026), residents who transact more than US$5,000 a year in crypto-assets, with or without intermediaries, must file an annual informative return: the first covers 2026 and is due in March 2027, with a late-filing fine of ₲1,000,000. The central bank says crypto-assets are neither registered nor authorised, which is not a prohibition; we found no verified rule that banks bar accounts of crypto firms.

Expectat is not a bank or a tax adviser: check each bank's current requirements in writing before you move money.