An explanation from someone that understands German would be epic. Or if someone understands just based on the translation.
I’m curious what’s the benefits of offshore banking at this point because I thought all privacy had been eradicated due to international agreemtns, perhaps it’s just for reducing taxes and convenience.
Sounds like they are banning banks that don’t have a license in Germany from letting people who are residents of Germany open a bank account with them. So someone who is resident in Germany (no matter the citizenship) cannot have a bank account outside of the EU unless that foreign bank has a banking license in Germany.
For example a British citizen who lives in Germany would be allowed to have a UK bank account with HSBC (because HSBC has a banking license in Germany) but not with Nationwide (because they don’t have a banking license in Germany). Same for other non-EU countries, so no account allowed in Switzerland, the US, Australia, Japan, Singapore etc.
Some notes:
- This is not just for Germany but is an EU law (which then has to be put into national law by each EU country). So it’s the same in all EU countries. A French resident can only open an account with a foreign (non-EU) bank if that bank has a banking license in France.
- There is no EU passporting. A foreign bank would need to have a banking license in the specific EU country you’re resident of, not just in another EU country. So for example if you are in a smaller EU country it is even less likely that the foreign bank where you want to open an offshore account has a license in your specific EU country.
- It’s about residency, not citizenship. A Swiss citizen living in Germany is not allowed to open a Swiss bank account. A German citizen living in Switzerland is allowed to open a Swiss bank account.
- You can still open a bank account in another EU country, e.g. a German resident can open a French bank account.
- All this only comes into effect from January 2027. Existing offshore bank accounts opened before July 2026 are grandfathered in (don’t have to be closed) but you can still expect some banks to try and close the accounts to reduce compliance burden. Unclear what happens to accounts opened between July 2026 and January 2027.
- There is no ban or punishment for the individuals opening an account, the law only applies to the banks.
- “Reverse solicitation” (you approaching the bank and asking for an account rather than the bank marketing their services to you) would technically still be allowed, but unlikely that this carve-out is useful in practice because it’s a big compliance risk for the bank to prove this and why would they bother for a small retail customer?
- You can still have account numbers in other countries through a EU-licensed bank, e.g. Revolut (bank license in Lithuania) or Wise (Belgium) can still give you an American or Swiss account number. Or your normal EU highstreet bank can still give you an account in foreign currency (to hold and transfer USD, CHF, GBP etc.). But none of these will really be a foreign account in the strict sense.