Banks in Honduras

The Honduran banking system includes private and public commercial banks, sociedades financieras, asociaciones de ahorro y préstamo and OPDFs. OPDFs are organizations that provide financial services for productive or development purposes under the applicable Honduran framework. Commercial banks hold the dominant share of deposits, credit and customers. The CNBS licenses and supervises financial institutions, checks solvency and anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing controls, and oversees financial-user protection. The BCH is Honduras's central bank and monetary authority; it also provides and settles national payment-system infrastructure. CONSUCOOP supervises cooperatives, which follow a separate institutional and protection framework. The CNBS supervised-institutions listing from June 2026 included Banco Atlántida, Banco de Occidente, BAC Honduras, Banco de Honduras, Banco Ficohsa, Banco del País, Banco Lafise, Banco Davivienda, Banco Promerica, Banrural, Banco Azteca, Banco Popular, Banco Cuscatlán, Banco Hondureño del Café and Banco Financiera Centroamericana. Public institutions include BANADESA and BANHPROVI. The exact authorization status, products and branch or ATM coverage should be checked in the current CNBS directory because institutions and locations can change. A microfinance provider or other financial company is not automatically a CNBS-supervised bank; authorization should be verified before placing deposits. A natural person commonly opens a savings or checking account with a valid DNI and may also need personal or bank references, an address and a telephone number. A company generally provides the representative's DNI, incorporation deed and amendments, RTN, powers of attorney where applicable and references. The bank can request additional customer-identification, anti-money-laundering, source-of-funds and beneficiary information. Foreign or nonresident access is not an automatic general right; the institution applies its own legal and risk requirements. A Cuenta Básica is a simplified account regulated by CNBS Circular 021/2022. Category 1 is for a Honduran natural person domiciled in Honduras, uses lempiras, has a minimum opening amount of L10, a maximum monthly balance of L15,000 and cumulative monthly deposits and withdrawals of no more than L30,000. Category 2 is for a Honduran natural person who is not domiciled in Honduras, may use lempiras or foreign currency, has a minimum opening amount of USD10, a maximum balance of USD20,000 and monthly deposits of no more than USD2,000 from foreign-source funds. Accepted identification can include a DNI, passport, consular ID or another document accepted under the rules. The bank collects an email address, address, phone number if available, income and economic-activity information, source and workplace details, and beneficiary information. The norm generally allows no more than one basic account in Category 1 or Category 2. Electronic opening can be available when the bank uses reliable authentication and liveness checks. If the bank cannot resolve an identity issue within 30 days, it may cancel the account and return the funds. A basic account does not provide an overdraft or permit unauthorized charges. The institution's app, card and digital access supplied for the account are free, while transaction charges follow the institution's published policy. Services can include deposits, balance inquiries and withdrawals, utility payments, salary or compensation payments, public transfers, remittances, domestic and international transfers, local purchases and related payments. A Cuenta de Ahorro supports repeated deposits and withdrawals and may provide interest, a debit card, ATM access, direct debits, online statements and transfers. A Cuenta Corriente or Cuenta de Cheques provides funds on demand and supports cheque use where offered; it is not simply another name for a savings account. A Certificado de Depósito or Depósito a Plazo Fijo normally pays according to an agreed term, and withdrawing before maturity can be restricted or have financial consequences. Rates, commissions, minimum balances, inactivity charges, transfer fees, ATM fees, card fees and foreign-exchange charges vary by institution and product. CNBS Conoce y Compara can help compare published conditions. ACH PRONTO processes interbank electronic transfers used for payroll, supplier payments, taxes, IHSS payments, card, loan and utility debits, and other transfers. Under the BCH rule, an ACH transaction can have a maximum of USD30,000, while timing and fees depend on the bank and processing cycle. BCH-TR settles high-value payments between banks or third parties on a gross real-time basis. CCECH clears cheques in lempiras and US dollars. SIPA supports regional US-dollar transfers within Central America and the Dominican Republic. In 2025, ACH in national currency processed 29,651,781 transfers worth L614,230.7 million, with volume up 31.3% and value up 24.3%. CCECH processed 1,490,248 lempira cheques worth L202,532.6 million, and cheque use continued to decline. Customers can use debit and credit cards, ATMs, point-of-sale terminals, branches and agencies, websites and mobile-banking applications. CNBS inclusion data for December 2024 recorded 6,749,578 active savings accounts and 5,773,556 active debit cards, equal to an 85.5% card-to-account ratio. Point-of-sale terminals processed 170.1 million operations worth L215,796.6 million in 2024. Digital use is increasing while cheque use is falling, but service quality and ATM or branch availability still vary by institution and location. Electronic money and mobile wallets form a separate ecosystem. BCH-authorized Dinero Electrónico, S.A. (Dinelsa) is an example; registration in the BCH EPSPE registry is not itself an operating licence. FOSEDE can protect eligible sight, savings and term deposits held at authorized contributing private banks, savings and loan associations, financial companies and branches of foreign banks. In 2025, the maximum was L245,715 per depositor per institution, shown as a reference equivalent of USD9,632.92. The limit applies to the depositor's aggregate protected balances at one institution, not separately to every account. Foreign-currency deposits are paid in the same currency or in lempiras at the BCH sale rate when a forced liquidation triggers protection. Related-group or insider deposits, deposits connected with problematic conduct and deposits from criminal sources can be excluded. Deposits at an unauthorized provider, cooperative or electronic-money institution require a separate protection and complaint check. Each supervised institution has an Oficial de Atención al Usuario Financiero. A customer can file a free Hoja de Reclamación at a branch or through the institution's digital channel. The institution generally gives a written response within 10 business days; an extension requires a written reason. If the response is unsatisfactory or does not arrive, the customer can submit the complaint to the CNBS user-protection channels GPUF or SIGER with the complaint form, the institution's response and supporting evidence. Keeping the receipt, account statements, transaction identifiers and messages makes the review easier. Banks must notify customers of transactions immediately. Changes that do not move money require notification through at least two channels; transactions of up to L5,000 require at least one channel, and transactions above L5,000 require at least two channels. Customers should have a 24-hour channel for reporting and blocking a lost card or suspected fraud. OTPs, passwords and PINs should never be shared. An unauthorized card transaction should be reported immediately. The claimed amount is suspended during the investigation. A credit-card claim normally has to be filed within 30 business days after the statement, while the debit-card deadline follows the applicable transparency rules. The institution bears responsibility in cases such as transactions after blocking, cloned cards and certain system, ATM or manipulation failures; the customer remains responsible for protecting credentials, checking alerts and statements, reporting loss or fraud, and providing accurate identification and source-of-funds information.