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Comment by forinti | Hacker News Reader

This has always been the rule in Brazil. In Uruguay you can open an account in pesos, dollars, or euros (but it is a very small country that depends on banking, like the swiss). Are there other countries where you can open an account with a foreign currency?

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I believe it's the rule in the U.S. as well; deposit accounts must be in dollars. Several American banks offer business accounts that let you maintain multiple currencies, but they do so by storing (on paper) the other currencies in the care of a foreign branch (see the asterisk note at the bottom of Wells Fargo's info: https://www.wellsfargo.com/com/international/businesses/acco...).

It's not the rule in the U.S. that deposits must be in dollars. (Most banks will let you open up foreign-currency accounts...they just charge more. A lot more.)

However, foreign currency-denominated accounts are subject to yearly gain/loss recognition as the value of the foreign currency changes compared to the dollar. This could potentially trigger income taxes on the unrealized gain, effectively (and usually) reducing or eliminating any interest earned. It's also a PITA for banks to deal with the compliance paperwork.

You can open dollar and euro accounts in the UK. Don't know if it gets any more niche than that (aside from being able to open accounts in £ ;).

In Poland you can easily open an account in USD and EUR in pretty much every major bank, even virtual ones. CHF and GBP are also popular. There are no special requirements, but wire transfers not in PLN tend be much more expensive (though there are limits on costs of transfers in EUR within EU).

In the US, Everbank offers accounts in several currencies.

You can open US dollar accounts in Canada.

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