South African Bank Account Types | TradeAnswers

South African Bank Account Types

Figures current at 29 September 2026. Source: TradeAnswers.

The account types
Account	Holds	Who may open it	Main use
Transactional	Rand	Residents and non-residents	Day to day
Savings or notice	Rand	Residents and non-residents	Interest, limited access
Customer foreign currency	Foreign currency	Residents, with conditions	Holding dollars without converting
Non-resident	Rand	Non-residents	Freely transferable abroad
Blocked	Rand	Former residents, historic	Largely replaced by the AIT process
Business	Rand or foreign currency	Registered entities	A trading company

The customer foreign currency account
Item	Rule
What it is	A rand-bank account denominated in a foreign currency
Who may hold one	Residents, subject to the conditions in the Currency and Exchanges Manual
What it avoids	Converting back to rand and out again on every round trip
When it helps	Regular offshore income or regular trading in dollars
Limits	Funds must have a permitted source, and the account is reported

Opening requirements
Requirement	Resident	Non-resident
Identity	SA ID or passport	Passport
Proof of address	Three months	Local or foreign, bank dependent
Tax number	Required	Not always
Proof of income or source	For higher risk	Usually required
Visa or permit	Not applicable	Usually required

Data maintained by TradeAnswers · updated as the figures change