I like Banco Popular. On the matter of opening an account, we had to have a letter from our US bank - letter of credit, I believe it is called. It stated our average balance for the prior year. Then we had to have three letters of reference from local businesses. Scotia Bank was going to require the same things (we went there first and left, incredulous at the archaic reference requirements, but acquiesced when BP demanded the same things). We had accounts in dollars and pesos, but never used the peso account and closed it after two years - that one had the debit card, but we always just use cash - all the pretty colors! We have a passbook for the account. If we withdraw more than US$1500 at one go, they quote a better exchange rate. Otherwise, it is often worthwhile to take the withdraw in US and go to a convenient money-exchanger for the better rate.
TransferWise: a friend has transferred money to my US account from his EU account and then I give him $US from my local account (and write a check from the US account to deposit into the Dominican account). It works fine. Have not dealt with Transferwise to a Dominican account, and I venture to guess it is not available.
