Before you start

Cédula de identidad — a visa alone is generally not enough
Proof of income, pension or source of funds
Proof of a Manta address, usually an EPAM water bill
An Ecuadorian mobile number

Step-by-step

1
Get the cédula before attempting a full account
Ecuadorian banks and cooperatives work from the cédula. A visa in your passport is not the same thing, and applications without a cédula are commonly refused without much explanation.
In personWho: You
2
Put the EPAM bill in your own name early
The municipal water bill is the standard proof-of-address document here, and a great many rented flats leave it in the landlord's name indefinitely. Sort this in your first weeks, because without it you will be improvising the address evidence a bank asks for.
In personWho: YouFirst month
3
Choose between a bank and a cooperativa deliberately
The national banks have the branch networks and the better apps. The cooperativas de ahorro y crédito often pay materially more on savings and sit under a different regulator, the SEPS, with a different guarantee arrangement behind them. Understand which supervisor stands behind your money before you choose.
In personWho: You
4
Bring documentation of where your money comes from
Source-of-funds rules are applied strictly and a large inbound transfer without paperwork will be held. In a port city on a known trafficking route the scrutiny is if anything greater than inland. Arrive with statements and a letter from the sending institution rather than answering questions retrospectively.
In personWho: You
5
Understand the ISD before you move money out
The Impuesto a la Salida de Divisas is charged on funds leaving Ecuador, including outbound transfers and some card transactions abroad. The rate has been reduced repeatedly in recent years — confirm the current figure with the SRI rather than assuming, and factor it in before planning regular transfers home.
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6
Carry small notes, and be deliberate about where you withdraw
Ecuador uses US notes and mints its own centavo coins alongside American ones. Breaking a fifty at a market or a beach stall is genuinely difficult. Withdraw inside a bank or a supermarket rather than at a street machine, keep amounts modest, and do not count money in the open — standard local practice in every coastal Ecuadorian city.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Cédula de identidad
Passport
Proof of income, pension and source of funds
EPAM water bill or equivalent proof of address
Ecuadorian mobile number

Things most newcomers don’t know

Dollarisation removes an entire category of financial risk, and people undervalue it until they have lived without it.

There is no exchange rate to watch, no spread on your salary or pension, no devaluation eroding savings and no parallel market. Compared with Argentina, Peru or Colombia the mental overhead of managing money simply disappears, and a price quoted to you in 2026 means the same thing in 2028. In a small coastal city that stability is what makes a modest fixed income go a long way.

Source: Banco Central del Ecuador

The ISD is the tax nobody warns you about, and it is charged on money going out.

The Impuesto a la Salida de Divisas applies to funds transferred out of Ecuador and to certain foreign card transactions. For someone paying a foreign mortgage, supporting family abroad or repatriating savings it is a recurring cost that does not exist in most countries. The rate has been cut several times as policy has shifted, so check the SRI's current figure — but do not plan a cross-border money flow without knowing it exists.

Source: SRI

A provincial branch has the same bank behind it and much less discretion in front of it.

Every national bank is represented in Manta, but the depth is not the same: fewer specialist products, fewer staff who have handled a foreign pensioner or a non-resident source-of-funds question, and a greater likelihood that anything unusual is escalated to Guayaquil. The practical answer is to arrive over-documented and to be patient rather than to assume the branch is being obstructive. Opening the account on a trip to Guayaquil and then using it in Manta is also a legitimate move.

Source: community-reported

Cash runs the parts of this city you will most want to use.

Card acceptance is fine in the supermarkets, the malls and the Malecón restaurants, and poor at the fish market, the food counters, the beach stalls and with tradespeople — which is to say at everything that makes Manta worth living in. Since the currency is the US dollar this means carrying real dollar bills and small ones, and withdrawing sensibly rather than opportunistically.

Source: community-reported