> Is it that hard to incorporate and set up a bank account in the US?
Yes. Yes it is.
Let me put it this way: Setting up a corporation is trivial.
Setting up a bank account can be a literally insurmountable hurdle for a business that is not based in the US.
Banks can choose to let individuals and businesses open new accounts purely within their discretion, and as often as not they want the business owners to be physically present with their identification in order to open accounts.
This is a regulatory requirement, part of the "Know Your Customer" doctrine. In plain words, banks are required to know who is the client who has opened an account.
Most banks will be risk averse and will not open an account to anyone applying online from abroad. Even for US persons applying online, they will ask quite a bit of documentation.
Some banks (but not all) will open an account for a non-US person, when the non-US person physically visits a US branch, with proper identification (typically a passport) and documentation on why they want the account. But even in such cases, it is up to the discretion of the bank employee to decide whether the risk of opening an account for a non-US person is worth the benefit. So, the same bank may give different replies to the same inquiry, depending on the branch asked.
As a concrete example, TD Ameritrade will open easily an account for a foreigner in the Chinatown branch in NYC, but will not open an account when the same customer visits a branch in midtown in NYC.
I live hundreds of miles away from my bank's brick and mortar, and when I call, I think I'm still a bit of a novelty to them. "This customer doesn't actually walk into the building ever? Fun, I want to talk to the mystery person on the phone!"
This sounds about right as the US would have hit market maturity much earlier in the tech cycle. Same with mobile networks, which are also backwards compared to those in Europe which came later and leapfrogged due to advances in tech and incremental improvements. And now we start to see the same effect in Asia, which is beginning to make Europe look like a backwater.
Yes. Yes it is.
Let me put it this way: Setting up a corporation is trivial.
Setting up a bank account can be a literally insurmountable hurdle for a business that is not based in the US.
Banks can choose to let individuals and businesses open new accounts purely within their discretion, and as often as not they want the business owners to be physically present with their identification in order to open accounts.
This is a constant pain in the neck.