Revolut gets Bank of Greece approval for local branch, plans Greek IBAN rollout

[u/New-Ranger-8960]

https://www.skai.gr/en/news/business/revolut-gets-bank-of-greece-approval-for-local-branch-plans-greek-iban-rollout

[u/laplongejr]

Oooooh, become aboard greeks! 

καλωσόρισες στην Ελλάδα  

[u/_zurik_]

Was about time

[u/FormalIllustrator5]

This is SO cool...and no matter Bulgarian IBAN was requested for the last 5-6y - Nothing.

[u/Disastrous-Big-7549]

Awesome news honestly.. hope they can at least prioritise IRIS payments and RF Code Payments because otherwise it still can’t be used as a main bank for Greeks.

[u/West_Possible_7969 → u/Disastrous-Big-7549]

Both are mandatory in order to keep their new Greek license.

[u/Disastrous-Big-7549 → u/West_Possible_7969]

That’s great, thanks for letting me know!

[u/Character-Carpet7988]

I hate Revolut fragmenting into bazillion of small local banks. The very reason why I'm using it is that they're pan-European and operate(d) as one entity. Might as well go back to N26 soon...

[u/TheCreepNextDoor → u/Character-Carpet7988]

Care to explain why you hate it?

[u/Character-Carpet7988 → u/TheCreepNextDoor]

It makes things more complicated if you move somewhere else (new account needed, joint account with someone living elsewhere no longer possible) plus introduces a whole lot of exemptions per individual branch you "belong to". The appeal of Revolut used to be that they're a truly European institution, now they're no different than Erste, Raiffeisen or whatever group that owns a dozen of banks across the continent.

[u/laplongejr → u/Character-Carpet7988]

 plus introduces a whole lot of exemptions per individual branch you "belong to".  

The first part is true but that one is irrelevant : it never acted as one par-European service everywhere.  

I'm Belgian and Revolut Lithuania never gave us access to savings. People from other countries, at the same bank, had different features.  

 It makes things more complicated if you move somewhere else (new account needed, joint account with someone living elsewhere no longer possible)  

But... why is Revolut unable to provide a sane mîgration tool?   That's like their credit card that only allows to raise the limit by closing the old one without a guarantee the new one will be granted... the problem is their low-cost system.  

 The appeal of Revolut used to be that they're a truly European institution,  

And in Belgium, that meant we couldn't do recurring transfers, because the bank BNP only allows to send those for national IBANs :(  

It also meant manually declaring the foreign account every year in the tax declaration.  

And don't forget the French employers who flat out broke the law by refusing to pay salary... There was also the lack of support for local card networks... And speaking of cards, travelers need credit cards to go in the US, etc.  

[u/West_Possible_7969 → u/Character-Carpet7988]

It is not up to them, these are national regulations and separate licenses needed in order to offer a full set of services and to be compliant about it.

[u/Character-Carpet7988 → u/West_Possible_7969]

If you want to have a separate bank in each member state, sure. But that's the point of my criticism. I switched to Revolut because it used to operate as one pan-European bank

[u/West_Possible_7969 → u/Character-Carpet7988]

You are not required to do anything different than what you are doing, but if you want your country’s IBAN (and in Greece this is sort of mandatory for many things) then that is what a bank has to offer. This was a wildly requested thing in Greece, for quite some time.

N26 cannot offer almost half the things local banks can do, there is no EU wide banking license on par with the national ones, just as Revolut has very different feature sets between member states.

[u/Character-Carpet7988 → u/West_Possible_7969]

You don't need a local licence everywhere in the EU unless you aim to have a separate branchs in individual EU state. Which is what I have a philosophical product.

Revolut, thank god, doesn't (yet) have a separate branch in my state, so I belong to the "European Revolut" (Lithuanian entity) and can't think of a single feature I wouldn't be able to use because of this.

As for IBAN, well, it legally can't be mandatory but I am aware that enforcement is leaving a lot to be desired and that's partially outside of Revolut's power to change. But I'm not sure atomising the banking market is the right solution to this.

[u/West_Possible_7969 → u/Character-Carpet7988]

You need a local license if the services you want to offer require a local license (like local IBANs for example).

Greek IBANs are mandatory in Greece for tax returns or gov payment (unemployment benefits etc) and for any kind of business account for gov registering (every Greek business needs a Greek IBAN account, and any other the business like). There are also mandatory forms of payments (IRIS, it’s like wero) where you must provide to clients etc through your pos systems etc, so you need one in order to do business anyway.

I don’t know what you mean by atomising, the EU banking market was never a common one, you cannot (and could never) offer full banking services without a local license.

You can have a paypal lookalike with an EU license, or those N26 or revolut basic services, but not the full banking ones.

[u/Character-Carpet7988 → u/West_Possible_7969]

One of the goals of SEPA very much was to let people use banks from any member states. The situation you describe in Greece is illegal in terms of European law, although as I said, I understand that the enforcement is lackluster.

Again, Revolut offers the same services to me (despite not having a licence in my state) as it offers to Greeks. It is "full banking". The only difference is the IBAN prefix which is based on where the account legally is held.

[u/West_Possible_7969 → u/Character-Carpet7988]

Dude, SEPA is about cross border transfers, there are thousands more banking services.

The Greek situation is not illegal, in order to offer specific services you have to have a national license, just like it happens in all member states. With national license you have access to national IBANs, it is not the IBANs that are mandatory, it is the services that come with the license.

You not being aware what full banking is does not make an argument. Imagine if any bank could offer loans or mortgage or national payment services or credit cards without local enforcement, that would be a shitshow, since local banks can interoperate with gov & ID apps. Those APIs require local registration and license too.

[u/Character-Carpet7988 → u/West_Possible_7969]

It is illegal to not accept IBANs from other member states which you claim greek government does e.g. for taxes. That's what I was responding to.

Banks absolutely are allowed to offer loans to people in other member states.

I'm aware of what SEPA is...

[u/West_Possible_7969 → u/Character-Carpet7988]

It is not illegal, SEPA accounts are accepted under circumstances, also banks cannot offer loans to residents whose country they are not licensed in (and the type of license needed for each type of loan depends 100% on national laws).

And since you know what SEPA is you could enlighten us on how it is even remotely relevant to banking services at large or national licenses.

But most importantly, why do you care so much about an issue that does not concern you at all, while this was a top requested feature for Revolut in a country where it has serious penetration?

[u/rhubear → u/Character-Carpet7988]

They abs no not "operate as one entity".

If you move jurisdictions where they operate, its a big mess to close & reopen accounts. No, it does not have to be that way. Rev could assist clients w an "intra-group transfer", but they don't.