Banking · Retail bank
bunq: Dutch digital bank for EU residents
Online retail bank licensed in the Netherlands, opened through the app by residents of the European Union countries it serves, with foreign currency accounts for certain countries of residence.
Please note
Characteristics
- Family
- Retail bank
- Regulator
- DNB
- Regulator country
- Netherlands
- Deposit guarantee
- Yes
- Remote opening
- Yes
- Currencies
- EUR · USD · GBP · CHF · PLN · DKK · SEK · CAD · TRY · CZK · RON · AED · AUD · NOK · ZAR · HUF · JPY · CNY · THB · SGD
- Services
- Current account · Multi-currency account · Payment card · International transfers · Savings · Securities and trading
- Accepted residencies
- Germany · Austria · Belgium · Bulgaria · Cyprus · Croatia · Spain · Estonia · France · Greece · Ireland · Italy · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Malta · Netherlands · Portugal · Romania
- Refused residencies
- Not provided
- Home country
- Netherlands
bunq only accepts people residing in one of the countries it serves, which correspond to the member states of the European Union; Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein are not included. An address in the country of residence is required at sign-up; a European living outside these countries cannot open an account, even if they have a tax identification number from an EEA country. Nationals of other countries residing in a country served can sign up with the accepted identity documents. The French overseas departments and the overseas countries and territories (including French Polynesia, New Caledonia and the Dutch Caribbean islands) are excluded. Minors can open an account with the consent of a legal representative who is a client themselves; people under guardianship, bankrupt or subject to an ongoing seizure are excluded. No income or wealth requirement is published, and the treatment of “US persons” is not specified on the pages consulted.
Entities and regulatory status
| Entity | Jurisdiction | Status | Regulator | Protection of funds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| bunq B.V.holds the account | Netherlands | Banks with their own licence | De Nederlandsche BankLicence R127999register · dnb.nl | Système néerlandais de garantie des dépôts (DGS) |
Who can open or keep an account
| Country of residence | Case | Status | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any residence (general rule) | Opening | Conditions apply | — |
| Any residence (general rule) | Opening | Refused | — |
| Any residence (general rule) | Keeping after a move | Unknown | — |
A country missing from this table is neither accepted nor refused: the information is not published.
Published figures
Licence and deposit guarantee
bunq B.V. is a credit institution licensed by the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank. Deposits fall under the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme, which protects up to up to €100,0002 per person and per bank, regardless of the number of accounts or sub-accounts held.
bunq's page on deposit protection states that savings held in a currency other than the euro are not covered and may fluctuate in value. This deserves attention for anyone keeping large balances in dollars, pounds or Swiss francs.
We were unable to open the depositor information sheet published by bunq or bunq's entry in DNB's public register: their terms for automated access prevented it. The link to the register is the one given by bunq's help centre.
Plans, fees and currencies
The basic plan, bunq Free, has no subscription: €01 per month. It includes an account with a few sub-accounts, each with its own IBAN, and a virtual credit card. Three paid plans, Core, Pro and Elite, are billed monthly.
Foreign currency accounts, in some twenty currencies including the US dollar, the pound sterling, the Swiss franc and the UAE dirham, are only offered to clients residing in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, France or Ireland. A resident of another country served does not have access to them.
On the free plan, card payments in foreign currencies benefit from the standard exchange rate up to an annual cap, beyond which a fee applies to each transaction. No minimum deposit is mentioned for opening an account.
We do not reproduce the prices of the paid plans or the detailed fee schedule: the pricing document and the fee information document published by bunq could not be consulted, and prices have been changed several times.
What an expatriate should check
- The country of residence: moving outside the European Union, including to Switzerland, the United Kingdom or the Emirates, takes you out of the countries served.
- Access to foreign currency accounts, which depends on the country of residence and not on the plan chosen.
- Coverage of foreign currency balances: only savings in euros are presented as guaranteed by bunq.
- The tax identification number of the country of residence, requested within a limited period after opening, and the declaration of the foreign account to that country's tax authorities.