Why being American matters to a Dutch bank
The United States taxes its citizens wherever they live, and its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) makes banks abroad report the accounts of US taxpayers. The Netherlands has an agreement with the US about this: banks and other financial institutions in the Netherlands report the accounts of US persons to the Belastingdienst every year, and the Belastingdienst passes the data on to the IRS (Belastingdienst, FATCA, checked 11 Oct 2026).
The Dutch Ministry of Finance explains what that means for you in its questions and answers for Americans in the Netherlands (Ministry of Finance, FAQ, October 2023 version, checked 11 Oct 2026):
- Everyone who is taxable in the US must give their bank a US Social Security Number or other US tax number (SSN/TIN).
- The bank reports at least your name, address, SSN/TIN, account numbers and balances, as they stand on 31 December. Banks may choose to report only accounts above $50,000.
- The same applies to people who are American only by birth and never lived there, often called "accidental Americans".
Opening an account
With an SSN or TIN, you open an account like anyone else; the bank asks for the number and reports the account. Without one, the Ministry's FAQ is blunt: a new customer who has no US TIN and no certificate of loss of nationality (CLN) "will in many cases be refused" in the regular process. Some banks have a separate route if you can show you have applied for a TIN or a CLN.
Even with a TIN, not every bank will take you. The FAQ notes that a number of banks, mostly smaller ones, stopped serving people with US nationality after FATCA came in, and that this is the bank's own decision. Among the savings products we track, the clearest example is Raisin, the platform for savings at banks across the EU: it does not accept US persons, "because of the very extensive rules on data transfer to the US", and counts as a US person a US citizen (also with dual nationality), a US resident such as a green card holder, someone born in the US, or anyone taxable there for another reason (Raisin, checked 11 Oct 2026). That rules out FCM Bank through Raisin and Raisin's RenteBoost. Each account's page in our savings account comparison lists who can open it, in the provider's words.
If your account is closed or refused
- A bank may end the relationship, the FAQ says, but it must have good reasons and give you a notice period. If you have applied for a TIN or a CLN, tell your bank: it takes that into account.
- You have a right to a basic payment account (basisbetaalrekening) if you live legally in the EU and have no other current account, with Americans included. A bank can still refuse it on legal grounds, and the FATCA obligations apply to it too (Ministry of Finance FAQ; basisbankrekening.nl).
- You can complain to the bank and then to Kifid, the Dutch financial complaints institute, the FAQ adds.
Savings and investments
FATCA reporting applies to savings accounts as much as to current accounts, so the same TIN question comes up when you open one. Investing is harder: the Ministry's FAQ says other US rules can stop people with US nationality from buying certain investment products, and that this is usually not because of FATCA itself. It names investment products, not savings accounts. For where savings pay most, see this month's savings rates, and for how safe they are, the deposit guarantee.
Your US tax return
None of this replaces your own US obligations. The FAQ reminds US citizens living in the Netherlands that they must file a US tax return every year, and may have to report foreign accounts (FBAR); the tax treaty between the Netherlands and the US prevents double taxation in many cases, but not all. For your Dutch tax, savings at any bank count in box 3: see box 3 on savings.