Brexit and Revolut

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What will happen to our cards when we eventually leave Europe?

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The Brits will not leave Europe, but they will leave the European Union. With that said, cards should work as before. There are two reasons for that; Revolut has applied for both a European and a British banking licence. Secondly, they do not need a license to work outside the UK, they just need a licence valid in the countries where they are issuing cards.

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Thank you Bendikha, I’d forgotten about the EBL.

4

And thirdly, it is likely the Brits will have a “soft” Brexit, meaning they’ll be out of the EU but still bound to most of its rules and policies…Something like the EEA with Iceland, Norway etc.

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Considering the way things are going currently, I wouldn’t bet the farm on a soft Brexit.

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I don’t think they can afford a “hard” Brexit and a certain isoltation this form of Brexit would mean.

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Sure, but that’s not happening with a soft brexit. At least not a total control.

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Well, even May’s white paper for a soft Brexit didn’t include financial services in the efforts to “stay close” to the single market. They were explicitly excluded, and the concept proposed a different approach where UK banks would lose access like they have right now. “Passporting” would not be possible anymore. If I am understanding this correctly, giving up full access to the single market for service and financial industries was one of May’s concessions.

Here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-12/may-unveils-u-k-soft-brexit-blueprint-but-banks-are-cut-loose

and here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-12/u-k-s-may-drops-call-for-easy-access-by-banks-to-eu-s-markets

So I would consider it critical for all financial service providers to keep a EU license, banking or whatever, to make sure access to the single market isn’t disrupted due to a hard, soft, well-done or fried (sunny side up!) Brexit.

As far as I know, this is the current licensing situation for Revolut: they’ve got the UK emoney license, so current services in the UK shouldn’t be affected by Brexit. They have applied for the EU banking license, so assuming it will be granted in time they will have secured access to the EU single market. They haven’t applied for a banking license in the UK, as far as I know, but it’s on the table. Right now, they are offering services where this license is necessary (credit) with a partner. For the US, the strategy seems to be to enter the market with a partner that has the necessary license, and apply for the own license later.

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They do need a license in one of the EU countries to keep selling their product in all of the other EU countries. Issuing could be done with partners, if they wanted to, but “localized” cards can also be achieved with “account ranges”, like they seem to do it right now with Metal cards.

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12

Hello
And what about the IBAN EUR account in GB after Brexit? Will it work as usual? Thought about toppin it up with EURO but I am not so sure in the context of Brexit…
Thanks

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13

It would be good if someone can reply this. Now that they have the EU licence means that we won’t have future issues for having our money in revolut?

Plus, if you keep it in the vault, we will have future issues for payments or for moving the money?

14

hey all, I live in EU and I would like to know what will happen to my revolut account after brexit. For instance, the SEPA will be still for free ? Will UK still be part of the SEPA agreement ? Also, what are the legal implications for an EU citizen keeping money in a GB account ? Can this be considered as way to avoid taxes?

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it seems no-deal brexit is hardly possible nowadays meaning UK will most likely stay in a single market and financial institutions will continue to operate as they are today.

not sure Revolut is in a position to share information about their plans for all possible brexit scenarios.

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Hi all!

Please find our latest blog post below about Brexit & Revolut.

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17

Hi! Does anyone know if the European IBANs will stay the same if the UK leaves with “no-deal”?

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18

Do you refer to the IBAN starting with GB for the EUR account with BIC REVOGB21? This is a UK IBAN with a BIC terminating in the UK. It’s SEPA integrated/enabled.

If they lose the right to passport, this would not affect the IBAN in itself I would assume, but you most probably lose the benefits of it being SEPA integrated. Meaning SWIFT fees could be charges, even for EUR to EUR transfers.

My 5 cents, as nobody exactly knows what and how Brexit will take place.

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19

Thanks, this makes things cleare.

Revolut currently has a licence to operate in the UK, which it is able to ‘passport’ to all other countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) under the EU’s Freedom of Services regime.

If a no-deal Brexit were to happen or a deal agreed that immediately revokes freedom of services, Revolut may lose this passporting right and we’ll need to migrate non-UK users to our licensed entity in Europe in order to continue offering our Revolut services to all our European customers.

I look forward to April 1st…no April’s fool hopefully :grin:

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Hello, how and where to check whether he agreed with the forthcoming changes after Brexit?