Opening a bank account

This matters more than any onboarding tip, because a great deal of relocation advice online still names banks that no longer exist under that name — or at all.

Hellenic Bank is now Eurobank

Hellenic was rebranded into the Eurobank group; hellenicbank.com now redirects straight to eurobank.cy. The rebrand to Eurobank Limited is reported to have taken effect on 1 September 2025.

AstroBank is now Alpha Bank Cyprus

Alpha Bank completed the acquisition of substantially all of AstroBank's assets and liabilities on 31 October 2025, creating Cyprus's third-largest lender with over €6.6bn in assets. astrobank.com redirects to alphabank.com.cy. Full system integration is reported to complete gradually during 2026, so ex-AstroBank customers should expect IBAN, card and app migration.

RCB Bank is not a bank

RCB voluntarily wound down banking operations during 2022 and the ECB withdrew its licence in December 2022. Its website is now an about-and-history shell with no banking products. It has not taken deposits since 2022 — delete it from any list you have been given.

Banks confirmed live and operating as of 22 July 2026: Bank of Cyprus, Eurobank (the former Hellenic), Eurobank Cyprus Ltd (a separate, wealth and corporate-focused entity), Alpha Bank Cyprus and Ancoria Bank. That is an existence check and says nothing about their onboarding policies.

The commonly reported document set for a personal account — indicative, not a published requirement, and it varies by bank and by applicant:

• Passport.
• Proof of residential address — a recent utility bill or bank statement, typically no older than three months.
• Proof of source of funds and source of wealth. These are two different things: where this money came from, and how you came to have money at all.
• Tax identification number.
• A completed bank application and KYC questionnaire.
• For non-residents, often a reference letter or an explanation of your connection to Cyprus.

If you are on the Regulation 6(2) investor route, this overlaps with your immigration file: that permit independently requires proof that the investment funds were transferred to Cyprus from abroad and are not the product of domestic borrowing. The same clean paper trail from the originating foreign account serves both purposes.

Reported drivers, from practitioner accounts rather than published criteria: incomplete or implausible source-of-funds evidence; no demonstrable economic link to Cyprus — no permit, no employment, no property; nationality and residency risk-scoring under de-risking policies; sanctions-list adjacency, including indirect ownership; politically-exposed-person status; complex offshore ownership chains; and the sector-wide retreat from shell-company business since 2013 and 2018.

Council Regulation (EU) 833/2014, Article 5b, is binding EU law and applies in Cyprus directly. It is not bank discretion, and no bank can waive it.

• Art. 5b(1) — it is prohibited to accept any deposits from Russian nationals or natural persons residing in Russia, from legal persons established in Russia, or from non-EU entities more than 50% owned by such persons, where the total value of deposits per credit institution exceeds €100,000.
• Art. 5b(2) — it is prohibited to provide crypto-asset wallet, account or custody services to Russian nationals or residents, or to legal persons established in Russia. There is no threshold here; it is an outright prohibition.
• Art. 5b(2a) — since 18 January 2024 it is prohibited to allow Russian nationals or residents to own, control, or hold posts in the governing bodies of an EU-incorporated entity providing those crypto services.

Derogations exist under Articles 5c and 5d: competent authorities may authorise deposits or services where necessary for basic needs — food, rent or mortgage, medicines and medical treatment, taxes, insurance, utilities — as well as legal fees, routine maintenance of frozen funds, extraordinary expenses, diplomatic purposes, non-prohibited EU–Russia trade, humanitarian purposes, and civil-society work promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Russia.

Cyprus is a euro-area member state and Cypriot banks operate within SEPA, so euro credit transfers to and from other SEPA participants use the standard SEPA schemes.

Transfers from Russia are constrained by two separate things: the Article 5b(1) €100,000 deposit cap for Russian nationals and residents without an EU, EEA or Swiss permit, and the exclusion of designated Russian banks from SWIFT under separate EU measures. There is no how-to here. The list of disconnected banks and the operational reality of routing change with every sanctions package, and a guide that is six months stale here does real damage.

Note that EU law prohibits IBAN discrimination — a business may not refuse your euro payment because your IBAN is from another SEPA country. In practice Cypriot institutions and landlords do sometimes insist on a CY IBAN anyway. Current e-money-institution offerings in Cyprus, including Revolut's, change often and aren't reliably captured by comparison articles; ask directly rather than trusting one.

Transfer fees, correspondent-bank charges, processing times, card eligibility criteria and guidance on building a Cyprus credit history are not covered here. Bank fee schedules vary by product and change often — check the bank's own site.