Banking In Paraguay

Poor Paraguayans are simply not catered to by traditional banks. So, banks focus on providing limited services for local businesses and for the small middle-class.

The net result is that it’s very hard for a nonresident foreigner or offshore company to open a bank account in Paraguay at all—and there would be no particular attraction in doing so.

On the other hand, once you’ve got a residency permit, you can walk into any bank, flash your cedula, and open an account without difficulty.

Accounts can be denominated in the local currency, guarani, or in U.S. dollars, euros, or other currencies.

If you obtain residency, you’ll probably want to have local currency to pay a few local bills and for pocket money, but Paraguay is not yet the place for wealth management or sophisticated banking operations.

You won’t be able to do much with this kind of bank account besides, perhaps, paying a local electricity bill using a pioneer online banking system.

There are, however, some changes going on in Paraguayan banking that are of interest to foreign investors, including nonresidents, such as:

• New entrants to the retail banking sector
• Investment banking (probably the most interesting area for nonresidents)
• High-return deposits in credit unions