US bank account as a foreigner: what the Trump order on the financial system really changes

On 19 May 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14406, titled "Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System". Anyone who wants to open an account in the USA without living there can easily read a threat into it. In fact, the order is aimed at a very specific group, and in all likelihood that group is not you. At one point it does nonetheless reach foreigners without US residence too: the ITIN. The position as of mid-September, sorted soberly.

What the order says

The first section names the goal without hedging. The government wants to counter risks to the financial system arising from financial services and credit for the "inadmissible and removable alien population", meaning people present in the USA without a right of residence or a right to work. The justification given is money laundering through small cross-border transfers, off-the-books payroll schemes and the credit risk of borrowers facing deportation.

From this follow instructions with fixed deadlines:

• Within 60 days, the Treasury is to issue an advisory to financial institutions, with patterns and red flags. One of them is expressly the use of an ITIN to obtain credit or open accounts where lawful presence has not been verified.
• Within 90 days, the Treasury is to propose changes to the due diligence duties under the Bank Secrecy Act. Banks are to collect enough identity data to recognise nominal and beneficial account holders, and they are to keep the power to request further information where there are risk indicators, including on immigration and work status in the USA.
• Within 180 days, the Treasury and the bank supervisors are to review changes to the customer identification rules, with particular attention to consular ID documents.
• Within 60 days, the consumer protection agency CFPB and the bank supervisors are to clarify how lenders may take the risk of deportation and loss of wages into account when assessing creditworthiness.

What had actually happened by mid-September

In Washington there is often a gap between announcement and implementation. The position according to the official publications:

The advisory is out. On 5 June 2026, FinCEN, together with the FDIC, the OCC and the supervisor of the credit unions, published Advisory FIN-2026-A002, in coordination with the tax authority, the IRS. It describes off-the-books payroll schemes in agriculture, construction, domestic work, hospitality and staffing, and lists red flags for banks.

On 8 June 2026 the CFPB published a statement on ability to repay in the Federal Register. It reminds lenders that the ability-to-repay assessment for mortgages and credit cards may take immigration status into account, above all where a deportation would interrupt income.

A draft of the amended due diligence duties under the Bank Secrecy Act, on the other hand, had not appeared in the Federal Register by mid-September, even though the order allowed 90 days for it. The FinCEN documents published since May concern other subjects, such as stablecoin issuers, individual foreign institutions and regional reporting orders. As long as there is no draft, there is no new duty either, only an intention. The 180-day deadline on customer identification runs until mid-November.

Whom the order means, and whom it does not

The target group is clearly defined: people who live in the USA and work there without a work permit, and employers who employ them off the books. The red flags in the advisory describe patterns such as recurring cheque deposits from several companies followed by structured cash withdrawals, or a newly formed business in one of the sectors named whose representative has no connection to the industry at all.

If you live in the UK or the Nordics and open an account in the USA as a non-resident, you fit none of these patterns. You do not work in the USA, you draw no wages there, and you do not apply for credit on the basis of US income. The identification rules also stay as they are. Under 31 CFR 1020.220, which FinCEN expressly cites in the advisory, a bank may collect from non-US persons a taxpayer identification number, a passport number with the country of issuance or another official photo ID as the identification number. The passport therefore remains the normal route.

Just as important is a sentence FinCEN itself wrote into the advisory: the red flags "do not convey or alter any independent regulatory obligations"; in other words, they change no existing duty. In the agency's view, no customer has a uniform risk profile, and no single flag is meant to decide on its own.

The ITIN: where it does affect you

The ITIN is a tax number issued by the IRS to people who cannot obtain a Social Security number. Foreigners without US residence need it, for instance, when they have income in the USA that has to be taxed there. The advisory makes clear that an ITIN is no proof of lawful presence, grants no work authorisation and does not serve as an ID outside the tax system.

Then comes the decisive paragraph. Where an ITIN is presented in place of a Social Security number or a valid work authorisation to open an account or obtain credit, banks are to consider whether this is a risk factor requiring enhanced due diligence. In their own words, the supervisors are particularly concerned where an applicant uses credit or deposit products with an ITIN without their lawful presence having been verified.

For you as a non-resident, this probably means one thing in practice: more questions. The wording does not distinguish cleanly between an undocumented worker in Texas and an entrepreneur in Manchester who needs his ITIN for the tax on US income. A bank that takes the advisory seriously will look more closely at an ITIN without a Social Security number, especially for credit products. That is not a ban, and nor is it a duty to refuse. But if you plan to open your account with an ITIN, have the answer to "Why do you have an ITIN and no residence in the USA?" ready in advance, with evidence.

Credit cards and loans

The credit part of the order is aimed at the same group: borrowers without a work permit whose income can disappear through deportation. The CFPB statement refers to the ability-to-repay assessment for mortgages and the assessment of the ability to make minimum payments on credit cards. For someone who lives abroad, earns their income there and claims no US residence, nothing fundamental changes in this logic. The bank checks, as before, whether income and assets support the card. Anyone who applies for a credit card solely on the basis of an ITIN, however, runs into exactly the combination the advisory describes as a risk factor.

What does not change for you

The order changes nothing about the position of the USA in international information exchange. The USA does not participate in the CRS. It relies on FATCA, which in practice is largely a one-way street: foreign banks report US clients to the USA, while the reverse direction is structurally patchy. That is why a US account remains, for people in the UK and the Nordics, one of the few ways to hold an account in a large, stable financial system without an automatic annual report to the tax office at home. How the USA compares with other countries is set out in Non-CRS countries 2026.

Nor does the tax liability change. Privacy yes, tax freedom never. Interest, dividends and capital gains on a US account belong in your tax return in the UK and the Nordics, whether a report arrives or not. In Norway, the balance itself also goes into the tax return for wealth tax, stated in Norwegian kroner.

How to approach opening an account in 2026

The order shifts the tone in which US banks think about foreigners, and the advisory hands their compliance departments a checklist. No tactic helps against that mood; a file that explains itself does.

First: identity through the passport, not the ITIN. The passport with its country of issuance is a full route under the customer identification rule. The ITIN belongs in the tax papers, where it belongs; it should not be the load-bearing pillar of your identification.

Second: document residence and income. Proof of address in your home country, proof of income, a plausible source of funds. If you live, work and pay tax abroad, you hold exactly the documents the advisory finds missing in the target group.

Third: name the purpose. Dollar income from client work, property, investment in dollars, travel, children's education: each of these reasons is legitimate. A bank that understands the purpose can place the transactions, and that is precisely the yardstick US banks use to measure their risk under the advisory.

Fourth: keep personal and business accounts separate. An account for a US company follows its own rules on beneficial owners and is a subject of its own. For the personal account: the simpler the structure, the shorter the review.

Which routes exist to open an account without residence in the bank's country, and where the limits lie, is shown in Opening a bank account abroad.

Frequently asked questions

What to watch over the coming months

Three dates and documents are worth keeping in view. The draft on due diligence duties is overdue and, when it comes, will be published in the Federal Register. Only then will it be clear whether banks may ask about immigration status only where there are concrete risk indicators, as the order puts it, or whether it becomes more than that. The review of the customer identification rules is due to be completed by mid-November, and consular ID documents are expressly named there. And the practice of the banks themselves: how they translate the advisory into their internal rules is not visible in the official gazette, but at account opening.

Until then, the sober finding stands. The Trump order sharpens the focus on people without a right of residence in the USA. For non-residents with a passport, residence and income abroad, the route stays open, with a little more paperwork if an ITIN is involved.

If you want to open a US account and would like to know which route suits your situation, talk to us in the free consultation. How we accompany accounts in the USA is described on Open a bank account in the USA.