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Opening a Bank Account in Canada: ID, Your Rights and Opening Online

Updated

To open a bank account in Canada, the bank has to be able to confirm who you are through identification, which you can show in one of two ways set out below, and FCAC (the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada) says you can open one even if you have no job, have no money to put in right away or have been bankrupt. Under the Bank Act, a bank that is a member of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) must open a personal deposit account for you when you ask in person and meet the Act’s conditions, and the Act sets out the cases where that duty does not apply. The page also covers the Social Insurance Number (SIN), opening online and holding several accounts. Choosing an account is on the bank accounts front and no-fee chequing accounts, and changing banks on switching banks.

What ID do you need to open a bank account?

The Act gives two ways to show who you are, and FCAC describes the same two. Under the Act’s duty, neither way requires photo identification; a bank can ask for one piece of government-issued identification with your photograph and signature only when it has reasonable grounds to suspect you are misrepresenting your identity. The conditions, from the Act and from FCAC:

  • There are two ways to meet the identification requirement, and you must provide original ID, not photocopies.
  • The first way is two documents from a reliable source, one showing your name and address and the other your name and date of birth.
  • The Act's list of such documents includes identification issued by the Government of Canada or a province, recent notices of tax assessment, recent statements of benefits, recent Canadian public utility bills, recent bank account or credit card statements and foreign passports.
  • FCAC lists the same documents and says the two documents must be from that list.
  • The second way is any one document from a reliable source that shows your name and date of birth, if your identity is also confirmed by a customer in good standing with the bank or by someone of good standing in the community where the branch is.
  • If the bank asks, you must agree to the bank checking whether any of the grounds for refusal in paragraphs 627.18(1)(a) to (d) (illegal or fraudulent use, a history of it, a material misrepresentation, or a risk of harm to customers or staff) applies to you, and checking the documents you presented.
  • If the bank has reasonable grounds to suspect you are misrepresenting your identity, you must show one piece of identification issued by the Government of Canada or a province that bears your photograph and signature.

What a bank lists for students, newcomers and children is on each group’s page, linked below.

Do you need a SIN to open a bank account?

Service Canada’s SIN Code of Practice says banks, credit unions and trust companies need your SIN for accounts and investments that pay income (such as interest and dividends), for example to report the interest earned in a bank account, and that if an account does not produce income the law does not require the organization to ask for the client’s SIN. The Canada Revenue Agency says you must give your SIN to anyone who prepares your information slips (such as a T3, T4 or T5 slip), including your bank, and that you may have to pay a $100 penalty if you do not provide it when required. Getting a SIN is covered on how long it takes to get a SIN.

Does a bank have to open an account for you?

The duty is the Bank Act’s and covers a request made in person at a branch or point of service of a bank that is a CDIC member. The conditions on who opens the account, and where:

  • The Bank Act says a member bank must open a retail deposit account for a person who asks in person at a branch or point of service where it opens such accounts, or who asks in a manner the regulations prescribe, and who meets the conditions below.
  • The duty falls on a member bank, which is a bank that is a member institution of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation.
  • A retail deposit account is a personal deposit account (in the name of one or more people, kept other than for business purposes) opened with a deposit of less than $150,000.
  • FCAC says these rights apply when you deal with a federally regulated financial institution like a bank or federal credit union.
  • FCAC adds that you can also open an account at a provincially regulated financial institution or another type of federally regulated institution that offers the product.
  • FCAC says you can open a bank account in person, by electronic means or by telephone, and that the bank must be able to confirm your identity through proper identification.
  • If you ask at a point of service that can only start the opening, the bank does not have to open it there but must open the account at another physical location.

The Act and FCAC also say what a bank cannot make a condition of opening the account, and what a federal credit union can ask of you:

  • A federal credit union may ask you to become a member.
  • A member bank must not require an initial minimum deposit or a minimum balance for the account this rule covers.
  • FCAC says you can open a bank account even if you do not have a job, do not have money to put in the account right away or have been bankrupt.
  • FCAC says you may be able to open an account in Canada with the proper identification even if you are not a Canadian citizen or live in another country, and you may need to go to the bank in person.

A credit union or caisse that a province regulates is not a member bank under the Act, so this duty does not bind it; FCAC says you can also open an account at a provincially regulated financial institution that offers one. Once the account is open, the information a bank must give you about its fees, and its written notice when a fee goes up or a new charge is added, are covered on bank fees.

When can a bank refuse to open an account, and what happens then?

The Act sets out when the duty to open an account does not apply, and FCAC’s opening page lists the grounds too:

  • A bank may refuse if it has reasonable grounds to believe the account will be used for illegal or fraudulent purposes.
  • A bank may refuse if you have a history of illegal or fraudulent activity in relation to providers of financial services and the most recent instance was less than seven years before you ask.
  • A bank may refuse if it has reasonable grounds to believe you knowingly made a material misrepresentation in the information you gave to open the account.
  • A bank may refuse if it has reasonable grounds to believe refusing is necessary to protect its customers or employees from physical harm, harassment or other abuse.
  • A bank may refuse if the branch or point of service where you ask offers only accounts that are linked to an account at another financial institution.
  • FCAC lists as a ground for refusal that you do not allow the bank to take steps to verify that the identification you presented is valid.
  • Having been bankrupt is not, by itself, a reason to believe an account will be used for illegal or fraudulent purposes.

If a bank refuses, the Act and FCAC say what it must give you:

  • A bank that refuses to open an account must give you a written statement that it will not be opening the account, together with the complaints information the Act requires it to disclose.
  • The information the refusal notice must include is the bank's complaint procedures, the name of the external complaints body and how to contact it, and the Agency's mailing address, website address and telephone number.
  • FCAC says that if a bank refuses to open an account, it must notify you with a written statement and disclose its complaint procedure, the contact information for the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) and FCAC's mailing address, website and telephone number.
  • You can file a complaint with the bank if it will not open an account and you feel you have been treated unfairly.

How a complaint moves from the bank to the external complaints body is on bank complaints.

Can you open a bank account online?

FCAC says you can open an account in person, by electronic means or by telephone, as in the list above, while the Act’s duty covers a request made in person. FCAC says financial institutions that operate only online may require that you have an existing account with another financial institution before opening an account for you, and online and online-only banks are compared on their own page.

What follows is one online bank’s description of its own application, from its help page. One online bank says each customer must be a Canadian resident, meet their province’s age of majority (18 or 19 depending on where they live) and have a Social Insurance Number, and that signing up online needs a Canadian mobile phone number. One online bank says its online identity verification uses a selfie photo to check that your face matches your photo ID, that the photos are deleted once you are verified, and that it is required by law to verify the identity of account applicants. One online bank says that as part of its online identity verification it does a “soft” credit check, which does not affect your credit score and is not visible to other third parties who view your credit report; how a soft check differs from a hard one is on soft and hard credit checks. One online bank says that if it cannot verify your identity through TransUnion or its online identity verification, you can do so at Canada Post, where you bring one piece of government-issued photo ID and one proof of address document if your photo ID does not have your current address.

The age at which a child or teen can open an account alone is on kids and teens bank accounts.

Can you have more than one bank account?

FCAC’s opening page says a bank must give you information about an account’s fees and charges when you open it, and that this applies even if you open another account at the same bank. FCAC says you may qualify for a multi-product discount if you have more than one banking product with your financial institution. Holding a chequing and a savings account side by side is explained on chequing vs savings.

The Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) insures eligible deposits at its member institutions if one fails, up to $100,000 per coverage category, principal and interest included, so deposits in more than one category can be covered for more in total. How CDIC counts deposits in one name, joint deposits and registered plans is on the CDIC deposit insurance page.

Other pages cover the questions that come with several accounts:

Accounts for students, children, newcomers and seniors

Under the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's Commitment on Low-Cost and No-Cost Accounts (effective December 1, 2025), the banks that signed it offer every Canadian a chequing account costing no more than $4.00 a month, and a $0 account to seniors receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement, RDSP beneficiaries, youth, students and newcomers in their first year, plus at least one more group each bank chooses. Both include at least 18 debit transactions a month and no minimum balance. It is a public commitment that FCAC monitors, not a regulation.

Which account each of the banks that signed FCAC’s commitment offers, and which groups are eligible for the version with no monthly fee, is on the no-fee chequing accounts page. Sign-up offers and their conditions are on bank account promotions.

Sources

The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between September 29, 2026 and October 20, 2026. How we check facts.