Before you start

Passport plus colour copies
A valid Employment Pass, DE Rantau approval or MM2H pass
Proof of a Penang address — a tenancy agreement stamped at LHDN, or a utility bill in your name
For Employment Pass holders, an employment letter from your Penang employer

Step-by-step

1
Stamp your tenancy agreement before you go to the bank
Most branches accept a tenancy agreement as proof of address only once it has been stamped by LHDN. Stamping is a separate errand with its own thirty-day deadline from signing, and doing it first turns a two-visit bank process into one. If you have not yet rented, a utility bill in your name or an employer's letter confirming your address will sometimes substitute — ask the specific branch before travelling to it.
OnlineWho: YouSame day via LHDN's e-stampingStamp duty on the tenancy, banded by lease length
2
Pick a branch used to foreigners, not just the nearest one
Branches around Bayan Lepas, Gurney and Georgetown's business streets process expatriate accounts routinely; a small suburban or mainland branch may not have done one in months and will be more cautious. Maybank and CIMB have the widest Penang coverage; Public Bank and Hong Leong are strong alternatives. If one branch hesitates, thank them and try a larger one rather than concluding you are ineligible.
In personWho: YouSame dayFree
3
Open the account in branch
Bring originals and copies of everything. The banker collects your documents, takes your photograph and biometrics, and usually issues a temporary debit card immediately with the permanent one following by post. Expect a modest opening deposit. Online banking is activated in the same visit, but you will need a Malaysian mobile number for the one-time passwords, so get your SIM first.
In personWho: YouOne to two hoursSmall opening deposit; standard accounts carry no monthly fee
4
Set up DuitNow QR and register for FPX
DuitNow QR is Malaysia's instant retail payment rail and is accepted by hawker stalls, kopitiams and market traders across Penang — it is more universally accepted at the food end of the market than card. FPX is the bank-transfer rail used for rent, utility bills and e-commerce checkout. Both live inside your bank's app. Link Touch 'n Go eWallet as well for tolls, parking and transit.
Mobile appWho: YouSame dayFree
5
Use a specialist transfer service for money coming in
Bringing funds into Malaysia through a specialist transfer provider is materially cheaper than an inbound SWIFT wire, where the cost is buried in the exchange rate rather than the fee. Malaysia has no capital controls on foreigners bringing money in or repatriating it, so the only real question is the spread you pay. Keep the transfer records — you will want them if you ever need to demonstrate the source of funds for a property purchase.
Mobile appWho: YouOne to two business daysA fraction of a percent through a specialist versus a wider implied spread on a bank wire

Documents you’ll need

Passport (original plus colour copy)
Valid long-term pass or approval letter (original plus copy)
LHDN-stamped tenancy agreement or a utility bill in your name
Employment letter (Employment Pass holders)
Malaysian mobile number for one-time passwords

Things most newcomers don’t know

The stamped tenancy agreement is the hinge on which the whole first month turns.

Banks want it, some employers want a copy, and it is the document that makes your address provable. Stamping is separate from signing, carries its own thirty-day window, and the rates changed on 1 January 2025 so that duty is charged on the full annual rent with no exempt band and scales sharply with lease length. People who sign a two-year lease to lock in the rent are often surprised by the duty. Do the stamping first and the rest of your setup unblocks.

Source: LHDN e-stamping; Stamp Act 1949 as amended by Finance Act 2024

DuitNow QR, not a card, is what makes you functional at a Penang hawker stall.

Penang's food economy runs on small independent stalls, and QR acceptance there has overtaken cards decisively — many stalls display a DuitNow code and take nothing but that and cash. Arriving with a foreign card and no local account means carrying cash for everything you actually want to eat. Getting the QR working in your banking app is a higher-value first-week task than it sounds.

Source: PayNet DuitNow QR; Malaysian retail practice

Branch discretion is real, and the answer you get is partly about which branch you walked into.

Requirements are set nationally but applied by branch staff who vary in how often they see a foreign applicant. Penang has an advantage here that most Malaysian cities do not: the branches serving the Bayan Lepas industrial estates process expatriate accounts as routine work. If a small branch refuses you, that is a data point about that branch, not about your eligibility.

Source: Malaysian retail banking practice

Malaysia has no capital-gains tax on financial assets and no inheritance tax, and no restriction on repatriating your money.

This is genuinely unusual in the region and it shapes how people structure their savings while here. There is a real property gains tax on Malaysian property disposals, and since 1 January 2025 a 2% tax applies to an individual's Malaysian-sourced dividend income above RM 100,000 a year — so 'no tax on investments' is an overstatement. But there is no general capital-gains tax on shares held by individuals and no estate duty, and you can move funds out freely.

Source: LHDN; Finance Act 2024 dividend tax

Common mistakes to avoid

Turning up at a branch with an unstamped tenancy agreement, which most will not accept as proof of address
Trying to open an account on a 90-day Social Visit Pass — banks generally require a long-term pass
Not having a Malaysian mobile number yet, which blocks online-banking activation and one-time passwords
Concluding you are ineligible after one refusal at a small branch instead of trying one used to expatriate clients
Paying for everyday spending on a foreign card and absorbing dynamic currency conversion at the merchant terminal

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.