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How to open a bank account in Sweden? Open a bank account in Sweden Open a bank account in Sweden without a personal number

Keeping money in a foreign bank– an option on how to protect your funds from surprises in the domestic economy.

The main purpose of depositing abroad is the reliable preservation of funds. Rates abroad are low, mostly 1-2%, and only in some places - up to 5%. Western financial institutions have strict conditions for early termination of deposits, as well as high taxes on interest.

Many people set a high threshold for depositing funds (especially in Switzerland) – 10-25 thousand euros. The minimum guarantee amount (payment of compensation to the investor in the event of bankruptcy) according to European Union standards is at least 20,000 euros. In some countries it reaches 100,000 euros, for example, in Lithuania. Placing money abroad is beneficial for those who study or work there, as well as those who own a business or buy real estate.

For many years, Russians placed deposits in Cyprus. But after problems in the country's banking system, when many lost money, his popularity decreased. Placement of funds in the Baltics is now common.

Also known among investors are countries such as Germany, Austria and Denmark, and the classic of the genre - Switzerland, where there are very low rates and a large minimum deposit. Deposits in foreign banks, the interest rates of which are very low, are considered as a way to safely store money, but not to earn money.

The proposal for deposits by country is as follows.

1. In Cyprus, the best offers reach 4.5% (individually up to 6%) per annum in $ - Bank of Cyprus, Cyprus Popular Bank Ltd, and AlphBank.
2. In Latvia, Citadele Bank is interesting, offering up to 3% per annum in $. BIGBANK announces up to 2.65% in euros.
3. USA: Edward and Jones Vanguard Group offer up to 2.96% in dollars.
4. In the UK, Bank of London and the Middle East announces up to 2.8% on sterling.
5. Italy. ING Direct Italia in euros – 1.4%.
6. Belgium - ING Belgium – 1.25% (euro).
7. Deposits in Germany: ING DiBa offers Euro rates of up to 1% per annum.
8. Sweden – Nordea raises funds at 1% in Swedish kronor.
9. Netherlands. ABN AMRO for deposits in euros – up to 1% per annum.
10. Switzerland. Postfinance Bank – 0.15% per annum in Swiss francs. Of the deposits in Switzerland, this is the most advantageous offer, taking into account the costs of servicing the deposit. Credit Suisse has the highest rates in Switzerland (0.72%), but service costs exceed income.

The main requirement of foreign financial institutions for non-resident depositors is transparency of the source of origin of money. Therefore, the verification of this factor is very serious. You will need different types of certificates and statements, different from the usual documents accompanying the opening of a deposit.

Recommendations from a domestic bank are welcome if it is a subsidiary of a foreign one. Recommendations from business partners who collaborate with this institution will also be very helpful. If the depositor has a business in the country where the deposit is placed, this is a big plus.

A high minimum deposit threshold (thousands of dollars) excludes people with low and moderate incomes.

To open an account in a foreign bank you must:

1. Select the appropriate country, bank (reliability rating “A”) and type of deposit.
2. Enter into correspondence to clarify the opening conditions (in person or with the help of intermediaries).
3. Collect the necessary documents (in person or through intermediaries), have them translated, and notarized.
4. Send documents to the bank.
5. Get a positive decision (or refusal).
6. If the decision is positive, sign the agreement by traveling abroad (for VIP clients, the bank can send its own clerk).
7. Place money.
8. Provide local authorities with all necessary information about opening an account abroad.

Starting from 2015, citizens who have placed funds abroad are required to submit information about the movement of funds in their accounts to the tax office every quarter. These reports must be accompanied by supporting documents translated into Russian and notarized.

The opening and closing of an account abroad must be reported to the tax office at your place of residence within a month (otherwise you will face a fine of 5,000 rubles).

You can transfer funds to the deposit only through Russian financial institutions.

• Calculate all income/expenses so as not to end up at a loss. Low interest rates on deposits, as well as the cost of servicing it, commissions for transferring funds and withdrawing them, converting them, lead to the fact that when placing less than 50 thousand dollars, the investor may be in the red.
• If a foreign bank does not give consent and requests more and more documents, then in this way it tells the depositor that it is undesirable for them to place a deposit. Abroad, it is not customary to talk about this directly.

*Data update date – April 2015.

Opening a Swedish bank account is a fairly simple and quick process, as long as you have a personnummer.

Opening a bank account in Sweden without a personal number

This is a difficult task to achieve. In general, the law does not prohibit opening accounts for persons who do not have a Swedish personal number, but each bank sets its own rules, and each potential client without a personal number is assessed individually. If you can prove your value to the bank - for example, provide an agreement to receive regular payments from a Swedish company or a statement from your current bank. In a word, this is a difficult and atypical task, and if you just walk into any bank “from the street” without having a personal number, you will be refused.

Thus, if, for example, you are studying at a Swedish university, do not plan to stay in Sweden for more than a year and therefore cannot obtain a personal number, then it is recommended to use your current bank account. By the way, if you need to transfer money abroad cheaply, a system such as Transferwise can help.

Opening a bank account in Sweden with a personal number

Everything is simpler here. The most popular banks in Sweden are Handelsbanken, Swedbank, Nordea Bank and SEB. Most banks are open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (some branches only until 1 p.m.); everything is closed on weekends and holidays. Therefore, you will have to plan your trip to the bank in advance.

Take with you your passport or ID card and a document from the tax office (Skatteverket) with your personal number. Also, if you have already settled in a rented apartment, a rental agreement that indicates your residential address may be useful. In addition, you may be asked for a copy of your employment contract with your Swedish employer or confirmation from the employer that you are hired.

By the way, it’s a good idea before visiting the bank to call its information service and find out what documents will be required from you.

In any bank you will be served in English. If you don’t understand something, ask for it to be explained again and again, take information brochures on this topic and study it at home. Don’t sign anything without understanding the essence of the agreement—the “I’ll sign and then figure it out” mentality doesn’t work here.

In general, you should familiarize yourself with the list of bank services on its website in advance and think about which of them you need. For example, Swedish banks offer a wealth of digital services, including a personal device (säkerhetsdosa) that protects against password theft and makes online banking more secure. More and more people are also using the smartphone app Swish.

A bank account usually comes with a debit card (Betalkort), telephone banking and internet banking. The telephone bank is usually open until 21-23 pm, while at Nordea it is open 24 hours a day. SEB offers telephone banking services in 25 languages. And on the Swedbank website you can even find a telephone line congestion sign: https://www.swedbank.se/privat/kontakta-oss/index.htm, point När går det snabbast att ringa till telefonbanken? The green color in the diagram indicates the time when the telephone banking line is least busy.

Deposits in Swedish kronor may be of interest to those who earn income in Sweden or plan to connect their lives with this country, despite the fact that their profitability is significantly lower than on deposits in rubles, dollars or euros.

The costs of converting rubles into Swedish krona and back, as well as fees for wire transfers, can significantly reduce profitability. Check these terms with your bank in advance.

Deposits in Swedish krona in Russian banks are covered by the state Deposit Insurance Scheme. The insurance amount is paid in rubles at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on the date of revocation of the bank’s license. The payment amount cannot exceed 700 thousand rubles. The client receives not only the deposit amount, but also interest for the time the money is actually in the bank.

As of spring 2014, almost all Russian banks do not accept deposits in Swedish kronor en masse, making an exception for wealthy clients, for example:

Deposit "Premium Reserve" at Promsvyazbank.

The deposit is valid only for wealthy clients. The minimum amount is 2 million Swedish kronor (more than 11 million rubles). For a deposit period of 367 days, the rate is 3% per annum.

Cities where the bank operates: in which cities the private banking service is available, please check with the bank.

Deposit "Universal" in Sberbank

The return on the deposit is symbolic – 0.01% per annum.

Few Russian banks offer their clients to save money in exotic currencies other than traditional US dollars and euros. However, even these are in, albeit small, definite demand. Their share in the basket of attracted deposits reaches 1-3%. Most banks include “exotica” in the package of services of Private banking programs. Below we have selected quite ordinary, non-privileged deposits for you.

Most often, such deposits are opened for two reasons. One of them assumes that a person often travels to another state, so it is beneficial for him to have an account in Russia in the currency of that country. This significantly saves money on exchange rate differences when exchanging currency. For example, by exchanging rubles first for euros, and then euros for crowns in Sweden, you can lose a significant amount. Direct exchange of rubles abroad is almost impossible anywhere. And payment with a card, the account of which is maintained in euros, is also less economical than in the national currency of that country. In this sense, an “exotic” deposit in Russia will be even more profitable if you also open a current account in the same currency, linked to a bank card. You can make a non-cash transfer of accumulated funds from the Russian Federation to your personal foreign account. Note that Russian deposits sometimes show higher returns than in the homeland of the national currency.

The second reason is the opportunity to make money on changes in the exchange rate of currencies, the dynamics of which on the stock exchange differ from the growth of the dollar or the fall of the euro, which is noticeable in the graphs shown in the first table. But this option is used only by those who are well versed in stock exchange rates.

To properly assess all these factors, the review provides the following useful information:

• dynamics of exchange rate changes over the last two years,
• the maximum difference between the highest and lowest exchange rate for the same period,
• the average margin between purchase and sale when exchanging cash or non-cash funds in commercial banks, which is important if you transfer one currency to another,
• the average rate on deposits in the country where the national currency is issued.

Please note that you can deposit or withdraw funds not only in the specified currency, but also in rubles. The conversion rate given in the text corresponds to the official rate of the Bank of Russia as of 03/01/2013. Typically, Moscow banks limit the ability to open “exotic” deposits in other regions of their presence. But the number of banks themselves working with “exotics” is constantly increasing due to the growth of such demand. For example, Chinese yuan have recently become especially popular in Russia, as business relations between our countries are developing quite quickly.

For comparison, please refer to the table of valuations of the two major currencies:

Dynamics of behavior of exchange rates for the period from 01/01/2011 to 03/01/2013:

Japanese yen (JPY), Express-Credit Bank, “Maximum” deposit

For the Japanese yen, the highest interest rate is offered by Express-Credit Bank: from 0.5% to 4.7% per annum. Here the rate depends only on the placement period: from 31 to 1095 (3 years) days. In the agreement, the investor can fix any period accurate to the day within this limit. The highest yield of 4.7% will be obtained for periods of 2 to 3 years. Interest is paid at the end of the term without the possibility of capitalization. The minimum contribution amount is 500,000 yen, which is 165,102 rubles. The deposit cannot be replenished, and you cannot withdraw part of the funds either. Early termination entails a change in interest to the “on demand” rate.

In other Russian banks (for example, in Sberbank and My Bank) you can find “Japanese” deposits with a yield of 0.25% to 4.2%. In the homeland of the Japanese yen, the bank deposit rate shows an average level of 0.1%. Fluctuations in the yen exchange rate on the Russian market over the past two years have shown changes from 31.9469 rubles. to 43.5650 rubles, i.e. the gap was 11.6181 points. When calculating the ruble amount, you need to take into account that the exchange rate is always indicated for 100 yen. The margin between buying and selling at our commercial banks is approximately 5 rubles per 100 yen.

Chinese Yuan (CNY), Asia-Pacific Bank, “Asian” deposit

The “Chinese” interest rates of this bank are only slightly different from the others, but other conditions in terms of terms and amounts look more attractive. Deposit yield is from 1.5% to 3%. There are only four rates, which depend only on the duration of the deposit: 3 months, six months, 9 months and a year. Interest is credited on the contract expiration date. The maximum income is possible for a period of 367 days and does not depend on the amount. The minimum contribution is 3,000 yuan, which at the official rate was 14,713 rubles. The deposit can be replenished with amounts starting from 3,000 yuan, including in ruble equivalent.

Asia-Pacific Bank is among the top hundred Russian credit institutions, occupying 60th place there.

They also offer to open an account in Chinese yuan in Mezhtrustbank, Svyaz-Bank, BBR Bank, My Bank, VTB24. Profitability can reach 4%. In the homeland of the yuan in China, the deposit rate will be 6% per annum. Over the past few years, the yuan on the Russian market has fluctuated between 41.9772 rubles. up to 53.4657 rub. for 10 yuan. The maximum gap over 2 years was 11.4885 rubles. The difference between buying and selling during an exchange is about 5 rubles. When calculating, you need to take into account that the price in rubles is usually indicated for 10 units.

Australian dollar (AUD), Promsvyazbank, Premium Reserve deposit

Promsvyazbank is one of the few that offers any client (not only Private banking users) to open an account in Australian dollars. The profitability of such a deposit depends only on the term and shows only two values: 3.75% and 4.75% per annum. Funds can be placed for six months (181 days) or a year (367 days). Interest is calculated daily and paid at the end of the term. The starting amount for savings is 300,000 Australian dollars, or at the Central Bank rate 9,405,450 rubles. You can top up your account with contributions of $120,000 or more at any time, excluding the last month. It is possible to open a contract via the Internet. There are no benefits for early closure; in this case, the rate changes to “on demand”.

Promsvyazbank consistently ranks 10th in the ranking of Russian banks.

“Australian” deposits as part of private services are also offered at Nomos Bank, UniCredit Bank, and Investtorgbank. In Australia itself, deposits in local currency reach 4%. Over the past couple of years, the exchange rate for such exotic dollars was set by the Bank of Russia from 28.2485 to 34.1792 rubles. The difference in fluctuations was 5.9307 points. The margin for exchange when buying and selling is approximately 1 rub. for a unit.

Canadian dollar (CAD), Promsvyazbank, Premium Reserve deposit

Two terms and two types of rates corresponding to them are offered by a special deposit of Promsvyazbank. The Canadian dollar in it shows a yield of 2.25% and 3.25% per year. The duration of the contract will be 181 or 367 days. The highest income is when placed for a year, interest will be credited at the end of the term. The minimum contribution is 300,000 Canadian dollars, which at the official rate is equal to 8,953,170 rubles. The account can be replenished with contributions of at least 120,000 currency units. There will be no benefits for early termination. More recently, the bank provided the opportunity to open deposits via the Internet in any currency, not only rubles.

The bank is among the TOP 10 best Russian banks in terms of many financial indicators.

In its homeland, the Canadian dollar is growing in bank deposits by about 1% per year. Our banks (for example, Sberbank, Nomos-Bank, Petrocommerce Bank) show much better returns on such deposit products. On the Russian foreign exchange market, the Canadian dollar exchange rate over the past two years has fluctuated from 28.3133 to 32.8907 rubles, which is only 4.5774 rubles. difference. Note that this is the smallest difference among the presented currencies. The margin on exchange transactions will be about 1 ruble for each Canadian unit.

Swedish krona (SEK), Promsvyazbank, Premium Reserve deposit

And for Swedish kronor, Promsvyazbank also offers the best conditions among its colleagues in the deposit market. The yield of this currency grows from 2.75% (after 181 days) to 3.55% (after 367 days) per annum. The rate does not depend on the amount invested. The minimum contribution is 2,000,000 crowns, which is 9,489,760 rubles at the Bank of Russia exchange rate. Interest is calculated and paid at the end of the contract term. It is possible to make additional contributions in amounts starting from SEK 800,000. There are no expense transactions, as well as benefits for early closure of a deposit.

Among other domestic banks, Promsvyazbank ranks 11th in terms of equity capital.

Swedish krona is accepted for deposits at Sberbank, Investtorgbank, UniCredit Bank. The return on deposits in national currency in Swedish banks shows an average level of 1.5% per year. Over the past two years, the exchange rate of the crown relative to rubles fluctuated from 42.5640 to 48.7784 rubles per 10 units. Here the maximum difference was 6.2144 rubles, which is relatively small compared to Asian currencies and comparable to the US dollar. The banks' margin on the purchase and sale of crowns will be approximately 2 rubles per crown in stable market conditions.

New Israeli shekel (ILS), CentroCredit Bank, “Profitable” deposit

In the spring of 2008, CentroCredit Bank opened up the opportunity for its clients to save funds in Israeli currency. They say here that this product is in definite demand among citizens who regularly travel to Israel. The rates for such deposits start at 1.9% and rise to 3.4% per year. The exact percentage depends on the period and amount of savings. The maximum return on investment will reach over 80,000 new Israeli shekels in a year. There are four deadlines for concluding an agreement: 31, 91, 181, 370 days. The minimum deposit amount is 1,000 shekels, which in ruble equivalent was 8,254 rubles. The account can be replenished. Early termination will be subject to the “on demand” rate

CentroCredit is among the TOP 100 Russian banks, where it ranks 78th.

Since 1985, the Israeli shekel has been called the “new” one. In the homeland of this currency, interest rates on bank deposits show an average level of 1% per year. Apart from CenterCredit, we did not find any other institutions working with this currency in Moscow. Since the Bank of Russia does not set daily exchange rates for shekels, we cannot assess the dynamics of its fluctuations against the ruble, but we found for you the dynamics against the US dollar. The market rate showed on March 1, 2013 the value of 8.2542 rubles per shekel. Typically, the bank sets a margin between the purchase and sale of currency at 1.5 rubles.

For their deposits, of all the exotic currencies, Russians prefer and. We will talk about deposits in this most stable European money in the next review.