Out of curiosity, it this a new thing with Millennium BCP or have they never offered investment accounts? Is it specific to US investors?
I don’t particularly know, but they do offer investment accounts. Just not to Americans.
I’d guess it’s a simple cost-benefit issue; there are probably enough US citizens to make it worth doing FACTA book keeping for the banking side, but not for the depository side. Typically your investment house is structured as a separate entity (it is with every bank I’ve ever known, it’s no doubt regulatory) so it’s a separate set of books and records to maintain. For the handful of AmCits that might use them, for the relatively slim pickings of those depository fees, why bother?
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Anyone tried opening a Citi bank account in Portugal through their banking relationship with Citi in the US?
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No but typically this does not work. They are owned by the same parent but they are legally separate banks and each one has to do their own KYC. The relationship helps and can grease skids but only so far.
Is it possible to open up an account online? I went online at Millienium and did not see a mechanism to do so. Please let me know if anyone had success with it.
Thanks!
FWIW, my lawyer in portugal says the only bank that will allow you to open an account remotely for the purpose of the investment option is Bison Bank.
Based on the website, it doesn’t appear that they are into Retail banking. is that correct?
No, currently Bison doesn’t offer retail banking.
Only if you’re not a US citizen (they don’t offer that service for Americans), you maybe able to open an account to hold your GV fund at Millennium BCP, but I think you may have to have a lawyer to help you with the remote account opening process.
@wkb I am US citizen and was told that i can open an account at Millenium BCP remotely. Is there a web link or do i need to get in touch with one of their representatives? Please advise.
Thanks
@amitporto I don’t have experience dealing with Millennium BCP. Please read this whole thread. Someone has already shared their experience with opening an account at Millennium BCP remotely. Then you can message them directly for the contact info.
Cannot be done. There was an earlier discussion around this.
For a depository account the only option seems to be Bison Bank
For a regular account Novo Banco
To the best of my knowledge and research these are the only two that can be done via an atty who is local and the client (you being remote)
Thanks for correcting me. This is what I love about this group, someone always has better and more current info 
@anon16151502 How do i go about opening an acct with Millennium remotely? I have tried to contact them, but no response. Please advise!
i can try to find the name of my contact at Millennium.
what are your intentions for the account and what is your citizenship? For retail banking, ok. For holding investments, not so good unless you are not US citizen.
I agree. We spoke to several lawyers and fund managers and they all told us the same, that Bison is the one. Also we did our own investigating with numerous banks and found that is true (we wanted to make sure there wasn’t some back door deals going on). To be clear, Ny comment is specific to US citizens trying to open a PT based account 100% remotely. Our contact at Bison then worked directly with our lawyer and our fund manager to handle all the transfer of paperwork required for both the bank and the GV process. We were super happy with our Rep at Bison.
. You actually can do some retail banking like activities (banking “lite” is how ai would describe it,m), but it’s SUPER expensive and everything is done online and they done deal with cash. They are truly an investment bank and specifically structured themselves to play well with the GV process (but don’t just handle GV investment funds).
We use a Bison only for the investment fund and the. Do our EU regular banking using Wise (formerly known as a TransferWise) and N26. To open a retail bank account at a PT based bank you must do at least part of the process in person with a human. Unfortunately due to lockdowns and the fact that the EU is basically closed to US citizens at the moment, that is out of the question for US citizens.
Is a PT retail bank even needed in 2021?
I have a debit card from Wise that automatically pays in local currency (Euros).
I assume this would work to withdraw cash from an ATM, and if so what is the need for a local bank account in PT?
I think I saw also that Bison now supports Multibanco so that would cover most situations for bill paying.
Whether you need one or not depends upon your situation. If you buy property you will need one because the utilities require it (and I think it is required to get your business license in order to short term rent your property if you do that).
If you go the investment fund route you will need one in order to pay your taxes on dividends (and of course you must use a PT investment bank to hold the funds) Our lawyer and our PT tax accountant both say that a bank with Multibanco is required to pay those. (which from our understanding, is only provided through PT based banks)
If you will not have either of those scenarios and are not using the Investment Fund route, it’s possible you will not need one and can live and spend just fine with Wise or one of the other international banks. (You’d would need to investigate your specific situation of course).
And yes, Bison is set up to allow you to pay taxes and utilities, it’s just not our first choice due to the high fees to do so, as well as it’s somewhat cumbersome to do it through them (again, their primary focus is investment banking). We have a workaround through our PT fiscal representative (you will be required to have one if you do not reside in PT) as a temporary solution until we can get back in country to start a retail bank account.
Hopefully that’s a bit clearer than mud… quite a maze to navigate for sure. I sometimes wonder if the US seems just as complicated to people new to our country as we think Portugal is to us.
I’ve been told BIG also accepts US citizens and will handle depository services (hold your fund shares) but the service isn’t very good. shrug they may have better retail services.
I’m sure the US is just as complicated. Hell look how hard it is for someone who is merely homeless in the US.