A Statutory Right to a Basic Account, Capped at Twelve Euro a Year, and the Money-Laundering Act Can Shut It
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Bolivia on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
116 exceptions recorded across 45 countries · none match Bolivia to Belgium · Opening a bank account
Belgium's right to a bank account is in its own statute rather than only in the Union directive behind it. Book VII of the Wetboek van economisch recht says no consumer may be discriminated against on grounds of nationality or residence when applying for, obtaining or holding a payment account; that every credit institution must offer the basic banking service; and that every consumer legally resident in a member state has a right to it, as does a Belgian living outside a member state who was struck from the Belgian population register no more than ten years ago. The price is capped at twelve euro a year and the institution must decide within ten working days of a complete application form. The limit is the same statute's own: the institution must refuse where opening the account would breach the money-laundering Act of 18 September 2017, and that Act is where the identity documents come from.
At a glance
- Who has the right
- Every consumer legally resident in a member state
Article VII.57, § 2, first paragraph, of the Wetboek van economisch recht.
- Belgians living outside a member state
- Also covered, if struck from the Belgian population register no more than ten years ago
Article VII.57, § 2, first paragraph, and § 6.
- Who must offer it
- Every credit institution
Article VII.57, § 2, first sentence.
- Maximum price
- 12 euro a year
Article VII.57, § 3, first paragraph. The King may adjust the tariff.
- Decision deadline
- Ten working days from a complete application form
Article VII.58, fourth paragraph.
- Discrimination on nationality or residence
- Prohibited when applying for, obtaining or holding a payment account
Article VII.56/1.
- When the bank must refuse
- Where opening the account would breach the Act of 18 September 2017
Article VII.59, § 1er, first paragraph. This is a duty to refuse, not a discretion.
- Overdraft
- Not allowed, expressly or tacitly, on a basic banking service
Article VII.57, § 5.
- What you have to produce
- Name, first name, place and date of birth and, as far as possible, address
Article 26, § 2, first paragraph, 1°, of the Act of 18 September 2017, checked under article 27 against documents or reliable independent sources.
Requirements
- Legal residence in a member state, or Belgian nationality with residence outside a member state and removal from the Belgian population register no more than ten years ago
- A completed application form, available online and on paper where the institution has a branch
- Identification: name, first name, place and date of birth and, as far as possible, address, checked against reliable documents or sources
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Bolivia
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«De consument wordt, bij het aanvragen van, of toegang verkrijgen tot, of bij het aanhouden van een betaalrekening bij een kredietinstelling niet gediscrimineerd op grond van nationaliteit, woonplaats of op enige andere grond bedoeld in de wet 30 juli 1981 tot bestraffing van bepaalde door racisme of xenofobie ingegeven daden \[2 , in de wet van 10 mei 2007 ter bestrijding van bepaalde vormen van discriminatie en in de wet van 10 mei 2007 ter bestrijding van discriminatie tussen vrouwen en mannen»Our translation - not official
Our rendering: a consumer must not be discriminated against, when applying for, obtaining access to, or holding a payment account with a credit institution, on grounds of nationality, residence or any other ground covered by the Belgian anti-racism and anti-discrimination Acts.
The non-discrimination rule, and it names nationality and residence first.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Iedere kredietinstelling moet de basisbankdienst aanbieden. Elke consument \[2 die legaal in een lidstaat verblijft\]2 \[4 of elke consument van Belgische nationaliteit die buiten een lidstaat verblijft en die uiterlijk tien jaar geleden werd geschrapt uit het Belgisch bevolkingsregister\]4 heeft recht op de basisbankdienst.»Our translation - not official
Our rendering: every credit institution must offer the basic banking service. Every consumer who is legally resident in a member state, or every consumer of Belgian nationality residing outside a member state who was struck from the Belgian population register not more than ten years ago, has a right to the basic banking service.
The right itself and the two classes of person who hold it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«De maximale prijs voor de basisbankdienst mag het bedrag van 12 euro per jaar niet overschrijden.»Our translation - not official
Our rendering: the maximum price for the basic banking service may not exceed 12 euro a year.
The cap.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«De kredietinstelling opent de basisbankdienst of weigert die te openen, onverwijld en uiterlijk binnen tien werkdagen na ontvangst van een volledig aanvraagformulier.»Our translation - not official
Our rendering: the credit institution opens the basic banking service, or refuses to open it, without delay and at the latest within ten working days of receiving a complete application form.
The deadline, counted from a complete form rather than from first contact.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«De kredietinstelling weigert de aanvraag indien de aanvraag van de basisbankdienst zou resulteren in een schending van de wet van 18 september 2017 tot voorkoming van het witwassen van geld en de financiering van terrorisme en tot beperking van het gebruik van contanten.»Our translation - not official
Our rendering: the credit institution refuses the application if granting the basic banking service would result in a breach of the Act of 18 September 2017 on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing and limiting the use of cash.
Where the right stops, and it stops at the money-laundering Act by name.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«De kredietinstelling mag noch uitdrukkelijk noch stilzwijgend een kredietopening aanbieden of toestaan verbonden met een basisbankdienst»Our translation - not official
Our rendering: the credit institution may neither expressly nor tacitly offer or allow a credit facility connected to a basic banking service.
No credit line attaches to it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«1° lorsque l'obligation d'identification porte sur une personne physique, son nom, son prénom, ses lieu et date de naissance et, dans la mesure du possible, son adresse;»What a bank must collect about a natural person. The address is qualified by 'as far as possible', which matters for someone who has just arrived.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«1° un ou plusieurs documents probants ou sources fiables et indépendantes d'information permettant de confirmer ces données;»And how it must be checked. The Act names documents or reliable independent sources, not a particular document.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Code is quoted here in Dutch. The French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht is equally authentic and was not read: the database refused every request for the French record of the Code made for this write-up, and answered the Dutch one.
The right is to a basic account. Any other banking product is the institution's commercial decision and nothing on this record touches it.
Article VII.59, § 2 lets the institution terminate the service in named cases, one of which is that the consumer no longer meets the residence condition in article VII.57, § 2.
- consolidatesWetboek van economisch recht, consolidated text
Justel, Service public fédéral Justice (Moniteur belge) · consolidated to 2026-08-04
About this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesLoi du 18 septembre 2017 sur le blanchiment de capitaux, consolidated text
Justel, Service public fédéral Justice (Moniteur belge) · consolidated to 2026-07-28
About this source
Belgium's consolidated federal legislation, served from the Moniteur belge site at two stable address forms: an ELI of the shape /eli/<type>/<yyyy>/<mm>/<dd>/<numac>/justel, and the older /cgi_loi/change_lg.pl query carrying the dossier number. Each record prints the date the consolidation is updated to, lists its archived versions, and marks in the body which amending Act inserted which words, with the Act identified in footnotes under the article.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The site is behind a web application firewall. A direct request from this project is answered with a JavaScript challenge page and a support ID, never the document, and the Bright Data proxy is refused at the CONNECT stage; only the extraction service returns text, and even then it refused two records outright - the French text of the Wetboek van economisch recht and the Code des impôts sur les revenus by its dossier number - while serving the Dutch and ELI forms of the same instruments. It may not be cited for the income tax code at all: the record for the Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 states that updating was suspended in 2002, shows the text as at 9 April 2010, and carries no text of the Code. Dutch and French are both authentic and a Justel record serves one of them; a quotation from one says nothing about the wording of the other. Several instruments are printed as parallel regional versions of the same article - federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels, German-speaking Community - so an article number alone does not identify a text. The consolidations are unofficial: the Moniteur belge as published governs. Nothing regional is here: decrees and ordinances of the Regions and Communities, which decide work authorisations and self-employment, are published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source