UK banks warn of account closures for customers in Spain and Europe - BayRadio Spain
Jan 13, 2025
NOT FAKE NEWS
A clip from Moody's interview with Christina Brady from Blacktower Financial Management.
She said:
"This is not fake news" – no Brexit deals cover financial products at present, meaning UK banks and UK financial advisors could lose 'passporting rights' to customers in the EU.
"Unless you have a UK residencial address, the banks will be doing it" – banks such as Barclays and Lloyds have begun warning customers that accounts without a UK residential address will be shut down either on 31st December or even 16th November. This mostly applies to credit cards, but some bank accounts too.
"Please act sooner rather than later, open a bank account now just put 50 pounds in case it all does fall apart" – Christina said online banks such as Revolut could helps Spain-based customers of UK banks.
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0:00
this is bay radio
0:06
those the ward thomas sisters then uh no
0:09
filter at 20 past 10
0:10
mainland spain 20 past nine in the uk
0:12
and canarys i'll tell you what let's not
0:13
drag this out anymore because it it's
0:15
what uh you'd be taught to do is leave
0:17
us till the last minutes is a big thing
0:18
that we were teasing up
0:20
but um just want to get on to this we
0:22
had in our spanish news yesterday
0:24
about um expats living in europe in the
0:27
eu
0:28
with uk bank accounts which they could
0:30
still do you know we used to have the
0:31
branches over here of course
0:33
um that they may face losing those uh
0:36
the end of the year
0:37
if nothing's hammered out at the last
0:39
minutes to sort out
0:41
pan-european banking regulations and
0:43
this is not fake news to whoever
0:45
comes straight in and put that no this
0:47
is very very true earlier this week i
0:49
went to see a client
0:51
and she gave me a letter she was very
0:52
very distressed it was from barclaycard
0:55
she's had a barclaycard for 40 years
0:58
saying we're advising you
0:59
that due to brexit we will be closing
1:02
your account at 11 pm
1:04
on the 31st of december 2020.
1:07
that was it and she said is this true
1:10
and i said
1:10
well it could be i said let me go away
1:12
and check so i phoned up barclays and
1:14
they confirmed and so did lawyers
1:17
that because of brexit what happens at
1:19
the moment is these
1:20
banks uh it's only banks it's credit
1:23
card companies
1:25
and it's also financial advisors in the
1:27
uk they passport
1:28
into europe so being part of the eu they
1:31
are allowed to sell their services and
1:33
their products or give them to people
1:34
who live in the eu if we have a brexit
1:37
with a no deal
1:39
at the moment let me just put this
1:40
weight none of the deals on the table
1:42
actually cover financial products so
1:44
something's going to have to be
1:45
negotiated separately
1:47
it means that they will lose these
1:49
passport in rights
1:50
so it means that people in europe who
1:53
can no longer hold a barclay card
1:56
a uk or any credit card or a uk bank
2:00
account
2:00
unless they have a uk address now that
2:03
is key
2:05
hear me out unless they have a uk
2:07
address
2:08
nat west and santander have said they
2:11
are waiting they're not sending out
2:12
letters yet
2:14
they're waiting to see what happens
2:15
santander as we know has branches here
2:18
natwest is royal bank of scotland so
2:22
for some of them they're saying they're
2:23
going to close the accounts on the 16th
2:25
of november
2:26
others are saying at 11 pm on the 31st
2:30
of december
2:31
2020 unless you have a uk residential
2:34
address so
2:36
that means your bank accounts will be
2:37
closed doesn't matter how many years
2:38
you've had them
2:39
how much money you've got in them this
2:41
lady had a letter saying you've got so
2:43
much money
2:43
can you arrange for this to be
2:45
transferred out
2:47
she's got a rental property in the uk
2:49
that she rents that money needs to go
2:51
into a bank account
2:53
in the uk it won't be able to if they
2:55
close her bank account so it's very very
2:57
distressing
2:58
and i think the banks are very
2:59
irresponsible because they've known
3:00
about this for ages
3:01
they could have take steps to warn
3:03
people about this sooner
3:05
and they could have put processes in
3:07
place to stop this happening
3:09
blacked out it's the same for us we use
3:11
passporting via gibraltar
3:13
to do uh business in uh across europe um
3:18
we knew that if there was a no deal
3:19
brexit and that the financial side
3:21
wasn't being discussed
3:23
that unless you were authorized to do
3:24
business in the country you want to do
3:26
business in any eu you can't
3:28
so therefore we got authorized by every
3:31
authority in every country
3:33
sorry and also we have set up another
3:36
head office within the eu
3:38
so we don't have to passport in um from
3:41
the uk
3:42
and the banks could easily have done
3:43
this they could have maybe used ireland
3:46
and switched the accounts to ireland i
3:48
don't know the logistics of it but at
3:49
least they could have given people more
3:50
warning
3:51
telling them now when there's literally
3:53
what two maybe three months to go
3:55
that they've got to do something it just
3:57
isn't good enough and the way things are
3:58
going
3:59
it does look like there will not be a
4:01
deal on the financial side
4:02
it's also going to impact people who
4:04
have investments in the uk
4:06
i have had at least in the last month
4:09
half a dozen if not more people contact
4:10
me
4:11
who have been contacted by the uk
4:12
financial advisors saying that they will
4:15
no longer be able to service them after
4:16
the 31st of december
4:18
because they won't be able to passport
4:20
in and also their professional indemnity
4:22
insurance will no longer cover them
4:24
to do business in europe so we're having
4:26
to look at that
4:27
also if some of you invest on your own
4:30
in
4:30
platforms you may not be able to do that
4:33
also certain funds can no longer be used
4:35
in europe
4:36
if you have funds that begin with an
4:38
icing code it's a code how you
4:39
distinguish what a fund is it is every
4:41
kind of code has got uni
4:42
unique icing code every fund if it
4:45
begins with gb
4:46
some of those will not be able to be
4:48
used in europe so these companies are
4:50
setting up new
4:51
sort of funds in either ireland or
4:53
luxembourg so they'll begin ielu
4:55
if you have those you don't have to
4:57
worry but there is a lot and people need
4:59
to act now they need to look at their
5:00
finances
5:01
they need to look what they have in the
5:03
uk it is definitely true
5:05
at the bank accounts and about credit
5:07
cards so
5:08
those of you that have you been using a
5:10
barclay card if it has a
5:12
address in europe you should be
5:14
receiving a letter in the post saying
5:15
they're going to be closed down
5:17
um as i said unless you've got uk
5:19
residential address they will be doing
5:21
this
5:22
and presumably if you need to uh
5:23
transfer that money out when the
5:25
accounts closed they're not going to be
5:26
necessarily uh friendly with the rates
5:29
um well if you
5:30
have to move it to sterling you can open
5:32
a specific account in spain or you can
5:34
yes okay all the banks here will offer
5:35
you a sterling account so you can
5:37
transfer into a sterling account here
5:39
but the problem is if you don't have a
5:41
uk bank account what they're saying is
5:43
post brexit
5:44
some of the pension companies will not
5:46
be able to pay your money
5:47
over into the eu so it has to go into a
5:50
uk bank account
5:51
and then you transfer it to europe so we
5:54
have to see if that's going to come in
5:55
pla into false because if it is it's
5:57
going to cause lots of problems
5:58
for people getting their pensions not
6:00
for state pensions because the
6:01
government can automatically pay those
6:02
and convert them into euros and pay them
6:04
over here
6:05
but some private pensions you may find
6:07
you have a problem receiving your money
6:09
but as i said it's not scaremongering
6:11
it's not fake news
6:13
i've checked with barclays i've seen the
6:15
letters that are coming out
6:16
it is definitely happening so please
6:18
beware uh you should receive letters
6:21
in the next four to six weeks if you
6:23
haven't already received them
6:24
are there any uh alternatives like you
6:26
know you see these online banks online
6:28
only
6:28
how do they work is it would that still
6:30
be the same it depends you'll have to
6:32
look at their terms and conditions
6:34
there are some that operate throughout
6:36
europe um i think it's
6:38
revolut um i don't know there's quite a
6:40
few there's quite a few but if you check
6:42
their terms and conditions
6:43
and you may need to look at opening one
6:45
of those bank accounts and please act
6:47
sooner rather than later i'd rather you
6:49
open a bank account now
6:50
just put 50 pounds in so it's there if
6:53
anything if it all does fall apart at
6:54
the end of the year
6:55
you've got something to fall back on
6:57
rather than the end of the year you're
6:58
thinking oh my god
7:00
what can i do i'm really really stuck so
7:02
please
7:03
look at it now don't panic don't run
7:05
down like headless chickens go oh my god
7:07
oh my god
7:07
you have got a few months to sort this
7:09
out but please do not bury your head in
7:11
the sand
7:12
if you have a uk address please use that
7:14
uk address
7:16
if you have a property in the uk that's
7:17
yours or you can you you know use a uk
7:20
address
7:20
make sure your bank accounts have that
7:22
address and then you won't be getting
7:23
this letter
7:23
but if they know you're anywhere in
7:25
europe in france spain italy germany
7:28
you will be receiving these letters
7:30
certain companies have certain countries
7:32
on their list
7:33
so not every country in europe at the
7:35
moment seems to be included but
7:36
definitely
7:37
france spain uh what was germany
7:40
slovakia
7:41
there was quite a few that were on the
7:42
list i think more were than weren't
7:45
so it is true well thank you for closing
7:47
this is bay radio
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