I would not expect the regulations to apply any differently to non-euro EU countries (of which the UK is one too). Maybe there are some exemptions for the six non-EU countries but even that we dont know.
There are some differences how regulations affect them. In non-EUR-countires, banks charge more often a fee for SEPA EUR transfers, like in the UK. (Same regulation, different outcome.)
And if Revolut does not provide a local account no in a local currency there, top ups via bank transfers are more expensive. Transfers to a British IBAN in polish Zloty are considered an international SIWFT transfer, customers there can’t benefit from regulated EUR SEPA transfers. I would call this inconvenient.
So local IBANS are clearly a higher priority for customers in non-EUR SEPA countries.
But this is because they also charge for domestic euro transactions, not because regulations dont apply or are different.
Agreed, this is the common request in e.g. the Swiss thread. Being able to top up using a local point of presence (much like Paypal for example). For this, Revolut only needs to have one domestic account, not issue 34 IBANs to every customer. And that only covers euro. If you want to fully support all currencies, every customer would need a separate IBAN for each currency in each country. Go figure 
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Sure. We’re going in circles here. I was merely making the point that the level of inconvenience is individual and that it would make a difference from the perspectives of many customers in non EUR countries.
I don’t expect Revolut to offer individual local IBANs for all supported currencies. I also never expressed an opinion that they should.
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business accounts can get a virtual IBAN under their name but it’s for SWIFT only, and GB*.
They CAN solve the top-up issue with local collection accounts under Revolut’s name. And apparently this are working on it.
We needed to clarify certain bits.
I am not arguing that missing PoPs (regardless of the currency) can be an incovenience for affected customers, but this is neither relevant nor applicable to the case at hand and, if possible, we shouldnt mix up things.
The thread is about customers in SEPA and EUR countries not being happy with a GB IBAN but asking for a local one. And that is not about inconvenience but rather about not being familiar with SEPA and possibly about having to deal with ignorant third parties.
Ha!
I signed up to this forum specifically to ask about this.
I’m trying to arrange a direct debit with Telecom Italia to pay for my broadband connection but they seem to require an Italy specific IBAN, there is no way to enter the Revolut local euro account number in the online form (same with the paper form although I haven’t tried to do it yet) this being Telecom Italia I don’t suppose there will be an easy solution to this.
Has anyone else here had any experience with this problem?
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I’d contact Telecom directly and try to clarify that. If they refuse you can only make a formal complaint to the authorities listed at How to complain | European Banking Authority
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Thanks for your input, I’m going to try faxing the paper form to their head office first, if it’s just an issue with Telecom Italia’s crap coding practices on the website and they accept it all’s well.
The problem arises with if they won’t process it they will charge me more for the contract as they require payment by DD to qualify for the reduced rate.
If that happens I might just take the path of least resistance and open an (Italian local) account with ING Direct, although don’t really want to do that.
If I have to do that I will definitely be lodging a complaint with the regulator.
So,
I’ve made a complaint about one of the companies (MoneYou for an instant access savings account) where I had a problem with them only accepting DE IBANs.
Here is the answer I received from the local authority responsible for IBAN discrimination, the Wettbewerbszentrale:
“vielen Dank für Ihre Eingabe vom 6. Juli 2018. Moneyou bietet Tagesgeld, Festgeld und Fondsanlagekonten ebenso wie Ratenkredite an. Alle diese Anlageformen bzw. Konten sind keine Zahlungskonten im Sinne der SEPA-Verordnung, sodass die ABN AMRO Bank hinsichtlich des Zahlungsverkehrs auch an die SEPA-Verordnung, jedenfalls in diesem Teilbereich, nicht gebunden ist.”
English translation:
“Thank you for your input on July 6, 2018. Moneyou offers instant access savings accounts, time deposits and fund investment accounts as well as installment loans. All these forms of investment or accounts are not payment accounts within the meaning of the SEPA Regulation, so ABN AMRO Bank is not bound by the SEPA Regulation in terms of payment transactions, at least not in this subarea.”
So this means there are definitely areas where we can’t use our non-local IBAN or the authority I contacted doesn’t understand law.
Here’s a list of companies & service types where I had issues so far:
- [X] MoneYou (Germany) (instant access savings account)
- [ ] Barclaycard New Visa (Germany) (credit card)
- [ ] American Express (Germany) (credit card)
[X] = I received a statement from the local authority that they’re acting within the law
[ ] = answer still pending
I’ll keep this list up to date.
UPDATE:
A lot of official government documents/websites in Germany that refer to IBAN discrimination only mention it in regard to direct debits (“Lastschrift”).
I’ve read article 9 and I don’t see any mention of it being only applicable to direct debits.
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This is the topic for which I found and joined the community forum here, so thanks for all the previous discussion. It’s good to know using a UK IBAN shouldn’t be an issue in day-to-day life in Germany and if so that it’s the merchant’s (or whoever the other party is) fault if they’re not accepting it.
I am curious however if the upcoming Brexit will impact this in any way whatsoever. I’m guessing that that’s something nobody can know for sure at this point in time and we’ll just have to see?
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They’ll probably move it over to another kind of IBAN that remains in the eurozone.
English IBAN is an excellent thing, you have already taken the lead with the potential brexit with a Lithuanian license. In theory this should be enough but the reality is quite different, it is without counting on the many obstacles of daily life, companies that refuse to pay a salary on a foreign IBAN not to mention gun blocks to prevent fraud the forums are filled with testimonies with blocks of more than 30 days following their 1st transfer of salary to their Revolut account. even if it is European, the many local public institutions that have absolutely nothing planned to transfer funds to a non-local IBAN, for example in Belgium we can in theory receive our paid leave payments to a foreign account but for this purpose it is necessary to complete a paper document to be signed by the foreign bank among others… something impossible with revolt, to this are added the small concerns of the kind not accepting payment because the address of the payment requester does not correspond to the country of the card… etc… you have recently and it is super activated the direct payment in Europe but in fact many institutions refuse foreign IBANs even if it is illegal to refuse them. also in Belgium we have the obligation to declare to the tax authorities the existence of our foreign accounts.
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Report them to your local regulator
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It is indeed a breach of Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No 260/2012, which states:
A payer making a credit transfer to a payee holding a payment account located within the Union shall not specify the Member State in which that payment account is to be located, provided that the payment account is reachable in accordance with Article 3.
Un payeur qui effectue un virement à un bénéficiaire titulaire d’un compte de paiement situé au sein de l’Union ne précise pas l’État membre dans lequel ce compte de paiement doit être situé, pour autant que le compte de paiement soit accessible conformément à l’article 3.
Een betaler die een overmaking verricht aan een begunstigde met een betaalrekening binnen de Unie specificeert niet de lidstaat waarin die betaalrekening moet worden gelokaliseerd, mits de betaalrekening bereikbaar is overeenkomstig artikel 3.
Ein Zahler, der eine Überweisung an einen Zahlungsempfänger vornimmt, der Inhaber eines Zahlungskontos innerhalb der Union ist, gibt nicht vor, in welchem Mitgliedstaat dieses Zahlungskonto zu führen ist, sofern das Zahlungskonto gemäß Artikel 3 erreichbar ist.
If a payment is due to you and you do not receive the payment because the payer is breaching the above regulation, then you can take the payer to court for non-payment. Any defence by the payer that it does not send payments to foreign IBANs will carry no weight because of the above regulation.
A breach by a payer of an EU regulation is not something for Revolut to solve. It is the error of the payer. Therefore please litigate against the payer.
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within the SEPA zone the issue with foreign IBANs is that they trigger alerts, fraud and AML, and that risk makes it difficult to use them freely.
revolut is in the position to bring borders down, by allowing people and businesses in supported countries LOCAL details and cards on any other supported country, independent of their residence.
One IBAN for the Eurozone should be fine, although I’d prefer to have a EUR IBAN based in a country that is part of the Eurozone. Hope to see a proper LT IBAN and LT BIC (RETBLT21XXX) once it’s all clarified with the Lithuanian banking license. I know that it can be quite annoying with some companies, but this issue is not something to be handled by Revolut, but rather by the European Union and companies not accepting foreign IBAN. Klarna Card in Germany for example requires a German IBAN for verification, but the direct debits can very well happen from Revolut. Telefonica o2 Germany does in theory accept non-German IBAN, but you need to send the direct debit authorization by fax. These are cases that are at the edge, technically it kinda works, but it’s just way too much effort.
However, with non-Eurozone countries it’s a different story, I can understand the need for local account numbers (we have PLN and NOK now, really hope to see CZK).
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Don’t forget to include the obvious one that we already have - GBP.
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PLN and NOK are only available to residents afaik. GBP to everyone but CH residents.
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? You mean a GB-IBAN? Or a local account number specific to GB?
Sorry for the dump question, but in Switzerland anything other than IBAN is no longer common to make any payments and is being phased out. It sill works, but this is on the declining road. Will take another two to three years to get completely rid of them, though.
So a local Swiss account number in fact is an IBAN starting with CH.