Unique EUR IBAN and BIC/SWIFT Numbers.

Εντάξει! Αυτό είναι καλό.

I top up my Revolut account by card, but I also wanted to check if it’d work by bank transfer to the new personal EUR IBAN. Turns out the bank doesn’t even recognize the IBAN and says it’s “invalid” :confused:

your Bank is stupid :wink:

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I know, right? :rofl:

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I would like to let you know that Alpha Bank in Greece now recognizes the new personal Euro Account IBAN. Last night I sent a message to support informing them about the banks that would not recognize the IBAN & BIC. They replied that they will take it into consideration and actually they did!

To those of you who have problems with the new personal account IBAN, I would strongly suggest that you contact support and send them the name of the bank and the country where it is located. This way they will be able to setup everything faster.

Hope this helps.

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Actually the message above was from me! I didn’t know I had another account as well :rofl: Sorry for that.

I still think is a random course of events.Their solution is the replacement of Lithuanian IBAN with British ones as it was confirmed from an updated agent.I have being trying to solve it with the rest of Greek Banks but I am feeling I am reaching wall.

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I actually want to keep the Lithuanian IBAN. When GB leaves the EU it will become difficult to make fast and free bank transfer .
For britisch people its the opposite i guess XD

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Yeah it’s possible. Maybe too many people were trying to top up their cards through their account with Alpha Bank that they finally figured it out LOL.

Today money came back.

Bank does not recognize it unfortunately.
Means I have to top up the old way.

I finally got a chance to try it too, and got quite a host of error messages: (All translated from German)

  • The recipient cannot accept SEPA transfers
  • The combination of IBAN and BIC is invalid
  • Invalid IBAN: the 3rd and 4th characters must be numbers

(The last error message is particularly unexpected, given the IBAN starts with “LT64 3920” and characters 3 & 4 are definitely numeric …)

edit: Ha, just got an email from my dad (who used to be a senior manager in that bank until he retired a few months ago). He told me that the online banking interface blocks all payments to LT accounts :open_mouth:

I would like to understand where the money deposited using this Lithuanian IBAN is actually being held. Although the EU and the UK both offer protection of deposits, the manner in which you have to claim compensation is completely different.

I think were the money is actually being held is fairly irrelevant:

You are depositing your money with Revolut Ltd. (If you put the EUR IBAN into any IBAN checker it will also tell you as much) and therefore any claim would be against Revolut Ltd, which is a UK company, regulated by UK authorities and under UK law (the last bit is also in their T&C).

That being said: Revolut is not FSCS protected (as far as I know) and therefore you have fairly little protection anyway. But I do not think that where Revolut holds your money has any bearing on the protection you have (or don’t have).

Finally, just a minute ago I received the folloing information through the Revolut chat:

IBANs are provided by the central bank of Lithuania whilst their money is held in a U.K. Account (sic) through Lloyds. Revolut has an e-money license and is regulated by the FCA

So, this confirms that money is held in the UK, but not FSCS protected. Instead “Electronic Money Institutions” must safeguard any customer money deposited with them by holding them in ring fenced accounts with “actual” banks, or have insurance in place in order to cover the customers’ deposits in case of insolvency. (I believe Revolut has chosen the first option.)

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Your money is actually held by either Barclays or Lloyds Banks in the UK both of which are FSCS protected.

Oh, just because Barclays and Lloyds are FSCS protected does not mean that your “deposits” with Revolut are!

Your money is held by Revolut. Revolut is an “electronic money institution” which is outside the scope of the FSCS which covers deposits with banks or building societies. Technically, money you pay into your Revolut account is not a deposit (hence the quotes above). Again: Revolut is an “electronic money institution” authorised by the FCA, not a “bank” thus outside the scope of FSCS.

(I should say that I’m not particularly worried about my deposits with Revolut: The ring-fencing should provide sufficient safe guards for most cases, if done correctly. The biggest difference is: FSCS will cover up to 85k per person “per bank” [the definition of “per bank” is complex, and it may cover more in certain scenarios], and is obliged to pay within a reasonable time frame. This applies even if the bank had lost all their clients’ money. The ring fencing as employed by Revolut means: If Revolut were go to insolvent then the clients’ money is held separately and cannot be used to pay creditors. As long as the money in the ring fenced account is sufficient to cover all “deposits” you will get all your money back [eventually, I don’t think there is a time limit], but if they have lost their clients’ money [be it due to human error, fraud, or Barclays/Lloyds going insolvent], then you may not get it back. Of course Revolut would break the terms of its license if they lost your money, but that would make little difference to your finances. But boy am I off topic now…)

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Thank you, that’s helpful to know!

From a pervious response “The safe and secure transaction of currency is central to Revolut’s mission and philosophy. Revolut does not transact, take or keep any money from customers directly. All your money is held in ring-fenced client accounts at Barclays. That means if anything happens to Paysafe Financial Services or Revolut, your money is still safe.”

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Fidor Bank: :heavy_check_mark:
N26: :heavy_check_mark:
Bunq: :heavy_check_mark:
Sparkasse: :x:

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E-money licence is not the same as the banking license and licensees are not covered by FCA or equivalent. But since Revolut can’t handle, store, lend or touch in any way their cash in their account, you are 100% covered by the country’s Central Bank. Different matter if their bank goes bust. But it’s a different story. In other words Central Bank risks own money granting their e-money license. Revolut needs a third party major EU bank who have access to EU’s SEPA Target2 fast transfer money system. Target2 is a very very costly and accessible mainly for a major banks only, that’s where Lithuanian Central Bank with their easy licensing laws comes into play with their direct access to their API. Also Lithuanian CB should have some sort of a approved list with their EU banking organisations for Revolut to use if they want SEPA access. Lloyds will be for UK only. As for IBAN and BIC number errors, local bank’s databases need to be renewed to accept a new IBAN i believe. Well I am not much of an expert but it should be about right, correct me if I am wrong.

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Additionally, the Brexit risk as well.

If a ‘Hard Brexit’ happens and UK no longer has any regulatory relationship with the UK, in terms of financial passporting, then Revolut’s Lithuanian subsidiary(?) can continue to offer services for Eurozone customers, and also allow Revolut users to continue transacting and hold EUR.

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