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I want to set up a bank account and a brokerage account in Europe so that I have access to different financial instruments in the European markets. If I need an address, my dad lives there. Can this be done without living there?

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    This is more of a personal finance/ expats question than a law question. If you are an American citizen and you are not a billionaire, no European bank wants to deal with the reporting and regulatory hassle of a US citizen in the US.
    – Justin Cave
    Commented Jul 31 at 6:23
  • @JustinCave: AFAIK, US citizenship is not even required for European banks to be very careful around you. A Green Card is quite enough.
    – Stephan Kolassa
    Commented Jul 31 at 15:28
  • Shop around...limiting factors are proof of id, tax id, address, contact form...i opened an account in an EU country by actually going there for 6 weeks.
    – Perdi Estaquel
    Commented Jul 31 at 19:08
  • The answers below are correct. However, a traditional stockbroker in the US (by which I mean where you call them and ask them to buy and sell things for you and ask them for advice) can get access to European stocks and other European financial instruments for you. Also, I'd be very careful about doing it yourself if you're not really resident in Europe. I live in US. I inherited some stock that were in a European brokerage account; it was a nightmare! They basically refused to help me get the dividends or sell them. I had to call in some powerful people.
    – JustWilliam
    Commented Jul 31 at 21:19

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Mostly by trial and error. There are two main obstacles:

  1. In many countries, bank accounts can only be opened by people who are residents in the country. For example, tourists may not open a bank account. See for example this answer.

  2. US imposes onerous requirements and severe penalties on banks. FATCA has draconian penalties on banks not properly reporting their US customers. As the result, many banks outside the US refuse any service to US customers. This, in part, is the reason for the increased numbers of people renouncing their US citizenship.

In addition, even if you do find a bank outside the US willing to open an account for you - don't forget your own FATCA and FBAR obligations. The penalties for non-compliance of individuals are equally draconian. If you intend to invest outside the US, you should also familiarize yourself with the concept of PFICs. After you've learned about FATCA, FBAR, and PFICs - feel free to stop by here if you still want to deal with all of that.

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In that is going to be very difficult, even if you where living there. Due to the tax evasion scandal1 about 15 years ago, many Swiss banks do not offer any services to customers with tax obligations in the US. E.g. the UBS (largest bank of Switzerland) does not offer accounts to US citicens, even when living in Switzerland. The US is not on the list of accepted passports under the "Was braucht es, um ein Konto zu eröffnen" ("what does it take, to open an account?") question.

1 Many banks had to pay very high fines because they where accused of actively supporting US customers to evade taxes.

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