Originally Posted by Markonline

To pay local bills.

Having a local a/c is by far the most efficient way of paying monthly bills; anything else would incur absurd unneeded charges, since they would have to be international transfers.

Electricity, water, cable, land tax/rates, phone etc; an extra +/- $25 each, incurred monthly on each international payment from not having standing orders at a local bank would be crazy.
And that is before you take bank commissions on currency conversion into account on each payment.

Unlike Cyprus, not all countries even enable you to 'stash away some cash' anyway.
Non residents, with second homes in some Caribbean countries at least for example, as we do, have legislation to prevent this:
No CASH can be deposited on such an a/c.
Any transfer over $10k requires a source of funds document submission; that to be approved by the compliance dept.

In all practical terms, a local a/c is virtually a requirement, and since your country of residence will be aware of your vacation/retirement home location
- using that same country as a base to stash hidden funds would be pretty stupid anyway.