What we are campaigning for:
Access to UK Bank Accounts
Learn about the issue of Access to UK Bank Accounts
JOIN OUR ACCESS TO UK BANK ACCOUNT POLICY GROUP
The issue:
UK banks are increasingly asking UK citizens, who have moved to live overseas, to close their UK bank accounts.
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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 ATMs 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.
What we say:
We need to properly research the issue with the banks and with the government.
We do believe that owning a UK bank account and a debit account, in today’s internet age in particular, needs to be treated as a fundamental right of a British Citizen wherever they reside and only rescinded in cases of abuse or fraud.
What we are doing:
We have formed a policy group to look at all the details and create radical proposals based on fairness.
We have and continue to engage with MPs, talking to them about the problems many overseas British citizens face when trying to access a UK Bank Accounts.
We seek to link up with other stakeholders and partners around the world who are also campaigning to end this practice.