Key Issue

UK banks are increasingly asking UK citizens, who have moved to live overseas, to close their UK bank accounts.

Most people who move overseas continue to have many obligations in the UK such as standing orders etc. They may be renting a property and collecting rent. Many continue to pay UK income tax.

Getting bank accounts and debit / credit cards in foreign countries can be very difficult and often debit cards cannot be used at ATM machines outside the country they are issued in.

The reason why this is happening is we understand due in the main to onerous compliance requirements being put on domestic UK banks by the government but may also be due to an agreement the UK government has made with the European Union post Brexit to restrict what UK banks can do with overseas customers in order to obtain certain rights in Europe for UK banks and financial service providers.