A non-resident can open an Italian bank account: nothing in Italian law prevents it and no residence permit is required. What stands in the way is anti-money-laundering compliance, and the answer is to arrive with a complete file.
The sequence is what hurts: the account a purchase or an incorporation leans on can take longer to open than either takes to complete.
The cause is Italy's anti-money-laundering decree — D.lgs. 231/2007, implementing the EU directives — applied to a profile banks treat as higher risk: non-resident, foreign funds, no local footprint. None of it is personal, and all of it is predictable.
Nothing starts without the codice fiscale
The Italian tax code is a prerequisite, not a formality for later. No bank will open an account without one, and a code from an online calculator will not do: it must have been issued and exist in the Agenzia delle Entrate register. The codice fiscale sets out the routes from abroad and what gets applications rejected.
A company needs its own Italian code too — including a foreign parent anywhere in the ownership chain.
Two different accounts, two different files
A conto corrente non residenti for an individual and a corporate account for an Italian company are separate processes; the corporate one is harder.
For an individual the bank normally wants a passport; the issued tax code; proof of address at home, usually a recent utility bill; evidence of the source of the funds; and often the reason for the account — the preliminary contract, the deed, the succession file. If you later move to Italy, tell the bank: the non-resident account is a distinct product.
Source of funds is what stalls applications
Here foreign clients underestimate the scrutiny. "Savings" is not an answer. The bank wants a documented chain — the sale of a house in Sydney, a redundancy payment, an inheritance, a business sale — supported by paperwork.
The money should also travel from an account in the holder's own name. Third-party funds — a parent, a spouse, a company the client owns — open a second round of questions, so document the gift or loan first.
For a corporate account the bank must identify the ultimate beneficial owner. Ownership above a quarter of the capital is the usual starting point, not a ceiling: control by other means counts too. Where an Italian company sits under a US LLC, an English private limited company or an Ontario corporation, and that under a trust, every layer must be documented and each foreign document apostilled and sworn-translated in the right order.
New companies meet a circularity worth knowing. Part of the cash capital of an S.r.l. must be paid up at incorporation, but since a 2013 reform it can generally go to the directors instead of a bank — which is what lets the company exist before it has an account. The exact proportion, and the treatment of a sole shareholder, need checking against the articles you are signing.
Identification: in person, by video, or not at all
The decree requires the customer to be identified; how it does so is the bank's own policy. Some run remote video identification, some accept a file assembled by a professional, some will not open an account for anyone who has never entered a branch.
A power of attorney carries a representative through most of what an Italian matter needs, and it is how clients sign deeds without flying. Banks are where it is least reliable: whether one will open an account by proxy is practice, not statute. Ask before building a timetable around it.
What your own revenue authority expects
Italy exchanges account data automatically — with the United States under FATCA, and with the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia under the Common Reporting Standard. Assume the account is visible at home from the day it opens. What you file depends on where you are taxed.
- United States. The US taxes on citizenship, so a citizen in London or Toronto is caught as squarely as one in Boston. US persons file the FBAR for foreign financial accounts, and Form 8938 where the separate FATCA thresholds are met. Tell your accountant before the account opens, not next April.
- United Kingdom. No FBAR equivalent: a UK resident reports foreign interest and gains through Self Assessment, and the account itself is not separately notifiable. The remittance basis was replaced from April 2025 by a residence-based regime, so older guidance may not fit — worth a word with your accountant or solicitor.
- Ireland. Stricter than most: the return asks a chargeable person for details of a foreign bank account opened during the year — a small box, easily missed.
- Canada. Taxed on residence. A foreign account is specified foreign property for the annual foreign income verification return once the cost threshold is crossed; a personal-use holiday home is not.
- Australia. Also residence-based: worldwide income goes into the return, and the ATO receives Italian account data through the CRS.
Thresholds and forms differ in all five countries, and they change: settle yours with your adviser before the account opens.
Do you actually need one before the deed?
Often, not yet. A purchase price can frequently be paid by international transfer from your own account abroad, and the notary records the means of payment in the deed itself. Whether it works depends on what the seller and the notary accept, so raise it early.
The account is genuinely needed for everything afterwards: utilities, property tax, condominium charges, and for a company the Italian tax payments, which in practice run by direct debit from an Italian account.
Two regional notes. Irish and other eurozone clients may already hold a euro IBAN, and EU single-payments rules require it to be accepted for euro transfers and direct debits; Italian suppliers still sometimes refuse, though the rule is on your side. A UK account, since Brexit, is no longer an EU account for these purposes. Italy also caps cash payments far below what non-EU buyers expect; the figure has changed repeatedly, so check it as at your transaction date.
When a bank says no
A bank is free to choose its customers and need not explain a refusal. The EU right of access to a basic payment account is for consumers legally resident in the Union, so it is no remedy for a client in the United States, Canada or Australia. Some smaller Italian banks decline US customers rather than carry the FATCA burden — better discovered early, and the banking ombudsman cannot compel one to take you on.
How we work on it
We tell you which documents your matter needs and in what form, assemble the source-of-funds file, make the introduction and answer the compliance queries — working with your adviser at home, whether a US attorney, a solicitor in London or Dublin, or Canadian or Australian counsel. For a company we run the application beside the incorporation so the two land together. What we cannot do is open the account in your name; no one can.
Every file turns on its own facts — where you are taxed, what sits above the Italian company, how the money is travelling — so none of the above replaces advice on your own position. If you would like to talk it through, the first conversation costs nothing and is with a lawyer. Tell us the date you are working to; it changes the order in which we do things.