If you've ever done something to get yourself added to the unholy nightmare that is Chexsystems, you're either excluded (if you are in a metro with a small number of financial institutions) or you have a lot of hoops to go through to get an account. There's no requirement to open a basic functionality demand deposit account, like found in the Eurozone, so it's up to financial institutions to decide who they will and won't accept.

For example, there's a credit union near me that advertises second-chance checking accounts. The account costs $7 per month and you have to take a $25 personal finance literacy course (that wasn't offered during the pandemic).

It might actually be easier for recent immigrants to get an account, because they have no history with ChexSystems, the _de facto_ credit bureau analogue for banking history.

When working for a technology company offering retail banking services (in a past life) the #1 reason for denying an account was a negative ChexSystems report. That means the applicant has had checks bounce, held a negative balance for too long, or was suspected of identity theft/fraud (often they were victims, sometimes unknowingly).

- People who've been slandered online or wrongly put into "compliance databases" (https://www.vice.com/en/article/pak7wb/exclusive-secret-blac... https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/03/the-dirty-secr..., https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/H...)

- People with white collar convictions

- People who bounced checks in the past or were unwittingly used as money mules and ended up in Chexsystems

- Banks closing accounts that interact with crypto exchanges