Opening a bank account in Cyprus for foreigners and companies

You do not need to live in Cyprus to open an account here. People who are legally resident anywhere in the EU, including asylum seekers and people with no fixed address, have a legal right to a basic payment account.

A bank can refuse that application only on narrow grounds: the anti-money-laundering law, or the fact that you already hold a payment account at another Cyprus bank covering the same everyday services. Applicants from outside the EU can still open accounts, but acceptance rests with the bank once its checks are complete. In every case, you will need a valid passport, ID or asylum confirmation.

Residents, non-residents, Cyprus companies and foreign companies can all open accounts here. The paperwork is the work: identity, address, where the money comes from, and what the account is for, under the anti-money-laundering rules.

What documents are needed to open a bank account in Cyprus?

To open a personal bank account in Cyprus, you do not need to be a resident of Cyprus, but you will need:

• Passport copy
• Proof of address issued in the past six months: a utility bill, a housing insurance document, a municipal tax or income tax bill, a document from a government department, or a bank statement
• Bank or financial institution reference letter, usually no older than three months
• Detailed CV
• Information and documents concerning annual income (tax declaration if applicable, company documents, income and payslips, profits and dividends)
• Information and documents concerning the source and value of wealth, with supporting papers such as bank statements or title deeds
• Application form issued by the bank

Cyprus anti-money-laundering rules do not single out the utility bill. A bank may verify your address by sending a member of staff to visit it, who then files a note on your file, or by double registered letter to an address it has already checked against independent sources.

The third route is documentary and the list is long: a utility bill, a housing insurance document, a municipal tax bill, an income tax document, a document from another government department, or a bank statement. Electronic bills count, and the bank then runs further checks that the address on them is right.

Where your wealth came from is a separate question. Every customer gives the bank an economic profile covering income and the source of the funds going in. The deeper source-of-wealth file, with documents behind each item, is an extra step the bank takes with customers it rates as higher risk. Buyers funding a property purchase under the Cyprus Golden Visa should expect that deeper file as a matter of course.

What documents are needed to open a company bank account in Cyprus?

A corporate file is the company's paperwork plus the personal file of every person behind it. The table below sets out what the bank asks for and what each item is there to prove.

Document	What the bank is checking
Certified copy of the Certificate of Incorporation	That the company exists and when it was formed
Certificate of Good Standing	That the company is on the register and its filings are up to date
Certificate of Directors and Secretary	Who runs the company and who may give the bank instructions
Certificate of Shareholders	Who owns the company on paper
Certificate of Registered Office Address	Where the company is registered
Memorandum and Articles of Association	What the company is permitted to do
Ownership chart running through to the ultimate beneficial owner	Who owns the company in fact, behind any holding structure
Recent audited financial statements and/or management accounts	The size and shape of the business
Trading address, a description of activities, and the website	What the company actually does and where it does it
Information and documents on the source of funds	Where the money going into the account came from
Bank reference letter for the company, usually no older than three months	Its record with another bank
The full personal document set for each director and beneficial owner	The people behind the company, to the same standard as a personal account

For a Cyprus company the certificates come from the Registrar of Companies. There is no Cyprus document called a certificate of incumbency: that is a British Virgin Islands and Cayman instrument issued by a registered agent, and a company registered in one of those jurisdictions may present it in place of the separate certificates above.

A parent company outside Cyprus changes the paperwork rather than the test. Certificates and corporate documents issued abroad usually need an apostille, and anything not in Greek or English needs a translation into one of them. Companies registered with the Business Facilitation Unit as companies of foreign interests go through the same bank checks as any other company.

Identifying the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) is a non-negotiable requirement of Cypriot AML frameworks. Banks must look through corporate structures to identify the natural persons who own or control the entity.

Banks work in Greek and English. A document in any other language goes in with a translation into Greek or English, and foreign public documents usually need an apostille as well. The translation is dated and signed by the person who made it, who can be a certified translator or a member of the bank's staff trained for the job.

The Cyprus banking system at a glance

• Banks in Cyprus are authorised by the European Central Bank (ECB), acting on an assessment and proposal from the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) as the national competent authority. The CBC publishes the register of licensed credit institutions on its website.
• The banking sector in Cyprus comprises domestic and international banks with Cyprus-based branches and subsidiaries. It is a core part of the Cyprus economy, carrying out domestic transactions and enabling Cyprus to act as a global business and financial centre.
• Cyprus joined the EU Single Supervisory Mechanism when it began operating on 4 November 2014. Under it, the ECB directly supervises Bank of Cyprus, Eurobank Limited and Alpha Bank Cyprus, and the CBC supervises the rest under ECB guidelines.
• Eligible deposits at every licensed Cyprus bank are protected up to €100,000 per depositor, per credit institution, including accrued interest, under the Deposit Guarantee and Resolution of Credit and Other Institutions Scheme. Hold accounts at two banks and each €100,000 is covered separately. Interbank deposits and deposits by financial institutions, investment firms and insurers fall outside it.
• Two mergers reshaped the market in 2025. Hellenic Bank was renamed Eurobank Limited and absorbed Eurobank Cyprus on 1 September 2025, so a Hellenic Bank customer now banks with Eurobank. Alpha Bank Cyprus took over AstroBank's Cyprus banking operations on 3 November 2025 and is the third-largest lender.
• Bank of Cyprus and Eurobank Limited are the two largest. Behind them sit Alpha Bank Cyprus, National Bank of Greece (Cyprus), Societe Generale Bank-Cyprus, Ancoria Bank, cdbbank and the Housing Finance Corporation, plus branches of banks from Bulgaria, Jordan and elsewhere. The current list sits in the CBC register linked above.

Types of bank accounts in Cyprus

For individuals

Cyprus banks offer four kinds of personal account: basic, current, savings, and joint accounts held by two or more people. Some banks add variations such as a youth account.

The law sets out what a basic account has to cover: opening, running and closing the account, paying money in, taking cash out at a counter or an ATM anywhere in the EU, direct debits, standing orders and credit transfers, and card payments including online. You get a payment card rather than a credit card.

You do not need employment, a work permit or a Cyprus permanent residence to open a basic bank account. You may be a bankrupt, an asylum seeker, or a person without a residence permit.

There are two grounds for refusal. A bank has to refuse where opening the account would breach the anti-money-laundering law. It may refuse where you already hold a payment account at another Cyprus credit institution that covers the same everyday services, and it can ask you to sign a declaration confirming whether you do.

A refusal comes in writing, free of charge, with the specific reasons, except where giving them would cut across national security, public order or the anti-money-laundering law.

Access cannot be made conditional on buying other products or shares in the bank, except where the bank asks that of every customer.

The basic account for people without ordinary papers

The law and the Central Bank directive together build a route for people who cannot produce a national ID or a passport. An official document issued by a Cyprus authority stands in, provided it carries a photograph, a unique number, an expiry date, and the holder's name, date of birth, nationality and country of origin. The special residence permit and the refugee travel document both qualify.

Asylum applicants whose case is still open use the Asylum Service confirmation that they filed, together with their alien registration certificate. Recognised victims of trafficking use the Cyprus Police confirmation of recognition, which holds good for one month until the special residence permit is issued.

The bank asks for a passport or national ID on top of these where one exists, and cannot make the account conditional on producing one. Where it refuses such an account, or restricts how the account operates, it has to document why and be ready to prove to the Central Bank that the measure matched the risk.

A bank with doubts about a refugee's documents must go to the Cyprus authority that issued them. It must not approach the embassy, consulate or a bank in that person's country of origin.

The current account may or may not have an overdraft facility. It allows you to do the same things as a basic account and gives you a chequebook and overdraft facilities.

The savings account operates like a basic account but gives you the right to interest.

For businesses: corporate bank account

Most banks give you a corporate or business account with various facilities that allow you to carry out business transactions effectively and conveniently. These facilities include standard products like loans for firms, letters of guarantee, letters of credit, and more specialised services like business credit cards and unique features for shipping companies.

European business bank account

Cyprus offers highly efficient business accounts with specialised products and services. Though there is no type of account called a European business account, all services and products of Cyprus banks comply with the detailed requirements of the EU and the ECB, which guarantee safety, quality and protection against money laundering and fraud.

Can a foreigner open a bank account in Cyprus?

Yes. For an ordinary account the bank verifies your identity from a valid identity card, in paper or electronic form, or from a passport.

For a payment account with basic features the list is wider, because the people that account is written for often hold neither. An official document issued by a Cyprus authority works, provided it carries a photograph, a unique number, an expiry date, and your name, date of birth, nationality and country of origin. The special residence permit and the refugee travel document both qualify.

Asylum applicants whose case is still open can use the Asylum Service confirmation that they filed, together with their alien registration certificate. Recognised victims of trafficking can use the Cyprus Police confirmation, which holds good for one month until the residence permit is issued. The bank asks for a passport or national ID on top of these where you have one, and cannot make the account conditional on producing one.

Nationality decides which route applies to you rather than whether you are served at all. EU citizens who settle in Cyprus register their residence with a yellow slip, and British citizens who moved after Brexit are third-country nationals for this purpose, as our guide to moving to Cyprus from the UK sets out.

Process of opening a bank account in Cyprus

For most banks, the process runs in two parts: you complete an application by hand at a branch or through the bank's online channel, and you hand over the supporting documents the bank needs to verify your identity, address and source of funds. The bank then runs its checks before the account goes live.

Opening a Cyprus bank account remotely

Cyprus banks may take you on without a branch visit, and the Central Bank directive treats that as a regulated method rather than a favour. Remote onboarding runs under the European Banking Authority guidelines on remote customer onboarding solutions, EBA/GL/2022/15 of 22 November 2022, which the Cyprus directive adopts by name.

One line in that directive matters more than the rest. A Cyprus bank has to take into account that verifying identity by electronic means does not create increased money-laundering risk, particularly where those means give a high level of assurance under Regulation (EU) 910/2014. Remote onboarding is not a reason for a Cyprus bank to treat you as higher risk.

Where the relationship is genuinely high risk, the bank applies the increased due diligence measures and may reinforce both the identity check and its ongoing monitoring of the account. A Cyprus bank using an outside technology provider for identity checks keeps final responsibility for its own due diligence, and has to be able to show the Central Bank of Cyprus that the solution it chose is appropriate.

In practice, some Cyprus banks let you finish in the app, scanning your passport or ID and passing a short video or selfie check. Others take the application online and ask you to come to a Cyprus branch once, to present originals and activate the account. Non-residents are asked for that single visit more often. Ask your chosen Cyprus bank which steps it allows remotely before you start.

Online banking and a mobile app come as standard once the account is open, and every Cyprus bank publishes its table of charges on its website.

What to do if a bank refuses your application

A refusal is not the end of the matter, and the law gives you more than most applicants realise.

The bank has to tell you it has refused, in writing and free of charge, with the specific reasons. The exception is narrow: it may withhold the reasons where giving them would cut across national security, public order or the anti-money-laundering law. In the same notice it has to point you at its own complaints procedure and tell you that you may go to the Central Bank of Cyprus and to the Financial Ombudsman.

The escalation runs in order. Raise it with the bank first and give it the chance to fix the problem. If that goes nowhere, file a formal complaint under the bank's approved complaints procedure. If the answer still does not satisfy you, take it to the Central Bank of Cyprus as supervisor, or to the Financial Ombudsman, depending on what the complaint is about.

Two points are worth knowing before you start. A bank cannot begin a relationship where it is unable to complete its due diligence, which happens where documents are missing, where the information cannot be verified, or where the bank cannot understand the purpose of the account. That is a different thing from an arbitrary refusal, and supplying what is missing often resolves it.

Second, the regulator has put the burden on the bank. Where a bank refuses a payment account with basic features, or restricts how such an account operates, on anti-money-laundering grounds, it has to document its reasons and be ready to prove to the Central Bank of Cyprus that the measure was appropriate and proportionate to the risk you posed. A restricted account is as answerable as a refused one.

If a Cyprus bank has refused you and you want the decision looked at, talk to us.