Opening a Bank Account in Honduras
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Paraguay on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Paraguay to Honduras · Opening a bank account
The document that opens the door is the tax number, the RTN, and the tax authority says so plainly: one of the reasons to register is to meet the requirement of a procedure such as opening a bank account. A foreigner can get one on a passport or a valid residence card together with proof of an exact address, and the first issue is immediate and free. The banking relationship is not optional for some residents: a rentista or pensioner must show at application that their income will be paid into Honduras through a national financial institution, and must produce a certificate from that institution at every renewal confirming that it still is. Banks themselves are supervised by the national banking and insurance commission, whose own account-opening rules we have not read.
At a glance
- Tax number needed to open an account
- Yes
- Identity document for a foreigner
- Passport or valid residence card
- First issue of the tax number
- Immediate and free
- Proof of address
- Required, in original
- Rentista and pensioner income
- Must arrive through a Honduran financial institution
- Proved again
- At every residence card renewal
- Supervisor
- Comisión Nacional de Bancos y Seguros
Requirements
- An RTN, the national tax number, which the tax authority names as a requirement for opening an account
- For a foreigner, a valid passport or residence card
- An original document proving an exact address - a utility bill, a lease, a certificate of residence in the locality, or a private-service subscription receipt
- Where someone else acts for you, an authenticated power of attorney stating the powers to appear and to sign
- For a rentista or pensioner, an account that can receive the qualifying income, because the residence depends on it
In detail
The tax number comes first
In Honduras the tax number is the general-purpose identifier, and the tax authority describes it as a document essential for any commercial or legal transaction in the country. Its own page lists opening a bank account among the reasons to register, which settles the sequence: the number before the account, not after it. Someone with no economic activity registers as a natural person without obligations, which carries no filing duty; someone who will invoice or let property registers as a natural person with obligations and does file. Registration is done at a tax office, with pre-registration possible online, and the first issue of the certificate is immediate and free.
For two residence categories the account is part of the permit
A rentista and a pensioner do not merely need a bank account for convenience. The migration regulation requires evidence at application that the income or pension will be received in Honduras through an institution of the national financial system, and at every card renewal a certificate from that institution that the money is still arriving and that the amounts the law requires have actually been brought in. That makes the bank a party to the migration status, and it makes the ordering awkward: the account has to exist, and to be receiving foreign money, for the permit to be renewed.
Country-level policy
Every procedure in the Honduran migration law and its regulation is addressed to the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería, under the Secretaría de Gobernación y Justicia. Neither name is current: migration control is now exercised through the Instituto Nacional de Migración under the Secretaría de Gobernación, Justicia y Descentralización, as a 2025 ministerial instrument recites. That would be a cosmetic problem if the new institute published requirement sheets. It does not. Its site was relaunched on 30 September 2026 and its alien affairs page lists the kinds of procedure it handles without stating a single requirement for any of them. The 2003 law and its 2004 regulation are therefore the only public statement of what Honduras asks.
The currency of Honduras is the lempira, and almost nothing in its migration law is stated in lempiras. The income thresholds are in United States dollars, the investment threshold is in dollars, the guarantee deposit is in dollars, and the whole fee schedule of the regulation - residences, naturalisations, permits, passports, extensions, the land entry fee - is in dollars with a single lempira line at the end for certificates. The law allows payment in the equivalent in national currency, so the dollar is the unit of account rather than the means of payment. The practical effect is that these figures do not quietly erode with the exchange rate, which is why thresholds set in 2003 are still the thresholds today.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Paraguay
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
«Para cumplir el requisito de un trámite (abrir una cuenta bancaria, registrar un bien, etc.).»Our translation - not official
To meet the requirement of a procedure (opening a bank account, registering an asset, etc.).
The tax authority's own statement that the tax number is what a bank asks for. A person with no economic activity registers as a natural person without obligations.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Honduras's tax administration, successor to the Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingresos that every instrument still names. It runs taxpayer registration and publishes its filing-season material.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law says. Its income-tax pages are link indexes and training calendars carrying no legal text at all - the rate scale is not on them but inside a downloadable acuerdo that has not been fetched. Its value is as evidence of what the administration requires, not of the rule behind it.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Para extranjeros: Pasaporte o Carné de Residente vigente.»Our translation - not official
For foreigners: a valid passport or Residence Card.
A passport is enough. The sheet does not require residence for the tax number itself.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Honduras's tax administration, successor to the Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingresos that every instrument still names. It runs taxpayer registration and publishes its filing-season material.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law says. Its income-tax pages are link indexes and training calendars carrying no legal text at all - the rate scale is not on them but inside a downloadable acuerdo that has not been fetched. Its value is as evidence of what the administration requires, not of the rule behind it.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Documento que acredite su dirección exacta (original), por ejemplo:»Our translation - not official
A document attesting your exact address (original), for example:
The examples given are a public utility receipt, a rental or lease contract, a certificate of residence in the locality, or a receipt for a private service subscription such as internet, cable or telephone.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Honduras's tax administration, successor to the Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingresos that every instrument still names. It runs taxpayer registration and publishes its filing-season material.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law says. Its income-tax pages are link indexes and training calendars carrying no legal text at all - the rate scale is not on them but inside a downloadable acuerdo that has not been fetched. Its value is as evidence of what the administration requires, not of the rule behind it.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Igualmente deberán presentar evidencia que la renta será percibida en Honduras por medio de una institución del sistema financiero nacional.»Our translation - not official
They must likewise present evidence that the income will be received in Honduras through an institution of the national financial system.
Article 26 imposes the same on a pensioner.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«Rentistas: Constancia de la institución del sistema financiero nacional de que el extranjero continúa percibiendo la renta y que ha ingresado al país las cantidades establecidas en la Ley;»Our translation - not official
Rentistas: A certificate from the institution of the national financial system that the foreigner continues to receive the income and has brought into the country the amounts established in the Law;
About this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
Practical notes
What a particular Honduran bank asks for beyond the tax number - minimum balances, reference letters, source-of-funds evidence - is not stated here, because we have read no bank's own terms and no circular of the banking supervisor on account opening.
The banking and insurance commission publishes the financial system laws and its own circulars, and operates a credit-history request service. We read its index of laws and regulations and no instrument behind it, so nothing here rests on the commission's own rules.
The requirement sheet we read is the tax authority's sheet for natural persons. We did not read the sheets for individual traders or legal persons.
- administersRegistro Tributario Nacional (RTN)
Servicio de Administración de Rentas (SAR), Honduras
About this source
Honduras's tax administration, successor to the Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingresos that every instrument still names. It runs taxpayer registration and publishes its filing-season material.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law says. Its income-tax pages are link indexes and training calendars carrying no legal text at all - the rate scale is not on them but inside a downloadable acuerdo that has not been fetched. Its value is as evidence of what the administration requires, not of the rule behind it.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersRequisitos de inscripción del RTN para persona natural
Servicio de Administración de Rentas (SAR), Honduras
About this source
Honduras's tax administration, successor to the Dirección Ejecutiva de Ingresos that every instrument still names. It runs taxpayer registration and publishes its filing-season material.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for what the law says. Its income-tax pages are link indexes and training calendars carrying no legal text at all - the rate scale is not on them but inside a downloadable acuerdo that has not been fetched. Its value is as evidence of what the administration requires, not of the rule behind it.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- reportsReglamento de la Ley de Migración y Extranjería
Tribunal Superior de Cuentas de Honduras - biblioteca de leyes
About this source
The state audit body's reference shelf, which carries the Constitution, the migration regulation, the tax code and the traffic law as PDFs. It is where several Honduran instruments are reachable at all.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for currency. It is an audit body's shelf, not a gazette and not a consolidator: no document on it carries a consolidation date or an amendment history, so it cannot establish that a text is the text in force, and it is not the issuing authority for anything it holds. Its directory index returns 403, so what it holds cannot be enumerated.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
- issuesLeyes y Normativas
Comisión Nacional de Bancos y Seguros (Honduras)
About this source
Honduras's banking and insurance supervisor, which issues the circulars binding banks on customer onboarding.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for anything about opening an account. What is held is an index of links to laws and nothing more, and no instrument behind it has been read. It is cited once, to name the supervisor, and carries no substantive claim.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source