Banks were surprisingly hostile, tried that with few branches but they first did not acknowledge the existence of the account and later they found a way to say that I do not qualify.

I had to make my agency write the employment letter multiple times because the banks always found something wrong. Finally, it was a week before Christmas and I had to beg the HSBC employee to accept the letter and open my account because I was running out of cash on Christmas.

A combination of the "hostile environment" and AML has probably ended this by now.