Fineco Bank pulling out of the UK

ivormonee

Zanderman said:

It's fine(co) with me! We have an account each with Fineco, opened for the incentive a few years back and never used since, partly because their website is so awful and partly as we had no need to use them.

We were planning to close the accounts - and I think fineco don't make that particularly easy - but if they're going to close them for us that's fine(co)!.

Fair enough. Not so fine(co) with me though. I use my account for Euro transactions, find it very convenient, and it has an EU IBAN. I haven't found any other suitable provider in the UK that offers such an account. When they close I will be left high and dry.

wmb194

ivormonee said:

Zanderman said:

It's fine(co) with me! We have an account each with Fineco, opened for the incentive a few years back and never used since, partly because their website is so awful and partly as we had no need to use them.

We were planning to close the accounts - and I think fineco don't make that particularly easy - but if they're going to close them for us that's fine(co)!.

Fair enough. Not so fine(co) with me though. I use my account for Euro transactions, find it very convenient, and it has an EU IBAN. I haven't found any other suitable provider in the UK that offers such an account. When they close I will be left high and dry.

Have a look at Wise's euro account, it offers a (Belgian) EU IBAN. I'm due some EZ tax refunds to my Fineco account and now I have a worry about the timing and how easy it will be to change the destination of the refunds...

I've also been using it as a stockbroker for some euro/EZ denominated and listed company shares and ETFs. I need to look into it but I can imagine these might be a pain to have transferred to a UK broker, or at least a cheap one. Will probably just have to sell them and eat the brokerage and FX fees for transferring the money elsewhere.

SouthLondonUser

@ivormonee I made a thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80291818 about how to receive USD payments now that Fineco UK is shutting down.

It seems that Wise and HSBC are the most recommended option.

Bear in mind Wise is not a bank so there is no FSCS protection; if I understand correctly, Wise holds your money in segregated accounts at other banks, but you do not benefit from the FSCS protection.

ivormonee

wmb194 said:

ivormonee said:

Zanderman said:

It's fine(co) with me! We have an account each with Fineco, opened for the incentive a few years back and never used since, partly because their website is so awful and partly as we had no need to use them.

We were planning to close the accounts - and I think fineco don't make that particularly easy - but if they're going to close them for us that's fine(co)!.

Fair enough. Not so fine(co) with me though. I use my account for Euro transactions, find it very convenient, and it has an EU IBAN. I haven't found any other suitable provider in the UK that offers such an account. When they close I will be left high and dry.

Have a look at Wise's euro account, it offers a (Belgian) EU IBAN. I'm due some EZ tax refunds to my Fineco account and now I have a worry about the timing and how easy it will be to change the destination of the refunds...

Thanks for that. Wise's account is an electronic money provider as far as I know rather than having a banking licence so isn't what I would want, even though it meets the EU IBAN requirement.

Depends when your refunds are due. Fineco said it's business as usual for a few months to come.

ivormonee

SouthLondonUser said:

@ivormonee I made a thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80291818 about how to receive USD payments now that Fineco UK is shutting down.

It seems that Wise and HSBC are the most recommended option.

Bear in mind Wise is not a bank so there is no FSCS protection; if I understand correctly, Wise holds your money in segregated accounts at other banks, but you do not benefit from the FSCS protection.

Thanks. Alas, the options don't fit my bill. Wise is an electronic money provider and HSBC use UK IBANs, so neither works for me. Fineco is an actual bank and has an EU IBAN, which is what I need for my EURO transactions.

wmb194

ivormonee said:

wmb194 said:

ivormonee said:

Zanderman said:

It's fine(co) with me! We have an account each with Fineco, opened for the incentive a few years back and never used since, partly because their website is so awful and partly as we had no need to use them.

We were planning to close the accounts - and I think fineco don't make that particularly easy - but if they're going to close them for us that's fine(co)!.

Fair enough. Not so fine(co) with me though. I use my account for Euro transactions, find it very convenient, and it has an EU IBAN. I haven't found any other suitable provider in the UK that offers such an account. When they close I will be left high and dry.

Have a look at Wise's euro account, it offers a (Belgian) EU IBAN. I'm due some EZ tax refunds to my Fineco account and now I have a worry about the timing and how easy it will be to change the destination of the refunds...

Thanks for that. Wise's account is an electronic money provider as far as I know rather than having a banking licence so isn't what I would want, even though it meets the EU IBAN requirement.

Depends when your refunds are due. Fineco said it's business as usual for a few months to come.

Yes, but you don't have to keep it there for more than two seconds. If your intention is to hold a balance of euros in the account then it might not suit but there is also an option with Wise to have it automatically invested in a BlackRock money market-type fund so even if you held a balance it wouldn't actually be with Wise.

SouthLondonUser

@wmb194 Do you mean this?https://wise.com/help/articles/74dYRhMCItIf2IBJLTpFQs/how-do-i-use-interest-and-stocks?id=74dYRhMCItIf2IBJLTpFQs&slug=change-how-your-money-is-held If I understand correctly, you can choose to invest your Wise balance in stocks or in a fund of government-issued bonds with Blackrock.

But, if you need the money in the short term, it's not very wise (forgive the pun...) to invest it into the stockmarket...

Government-issued bonds are obviously safer in terms of credit risk (it's unlikely the UK etc will default) but they are not immune from interest rate risk; eg if you need to divest the day after rates have gone up a lot, good luck.

I find this Wise statement

https://wise.com/help/articles/GDxZxemd21yDVP4TQmdDJ/using-wise-interest?id=GDxZxemd21yDVP4TQmdDJ&slug=holding-your-money-in-an-interest-earning-fund

The main risks that can cause the value of the fund to decrease are the government defaulting or interests rates dropping to 0% or lower.

misleading, if not patently wrong.

SouthLondonUser

ivormonee said:

Thanks. Alas, the options don't fit my bill. Wise is an electronic money provider and HSBC use UK IBANs, so neither works for me. Fineco is an actual bank and has an EU IBAN, which is what I need for my EURO transactions.

So you need an EU IBAN?

I don't mean to intrude, but, out of curiosity, does this mean there are banks which can send money to an EU IBAN but not to a UK IBAN?

I wonder if, post Brexit, EU banks are allowed to open EU accounts for UK residents

friolento

ivormonee said:

Zanderman said:

It's fine(co) with me! We have an account each with Fineco, opened for the incentive a few years back and never used since, partly because their website is so awful and partly as we had no need to use them.

We were planning to close the accounts - and I think fineco don't make that particularly easy - but if they're going to close them for us that's fine(co)!.

Fair enough. Not so fine(co) with me though. I use my account for Euro transactions, find it very convenient, and it has an EU IBAN. I haven't found any other suitable provider in the UK that offers such an account. When they close I will be left high and dry.

Would bunq be an alternative for you? Even if you had to pay a monthly fee?

wmb194

SouthLondonUser said:

@wmb194 Do you mean this?https://wise.com/help/articles/74dYRhMCItIf2IBJLTpFQs/how-do-i-use-interest-and-stocks?id=74dYRhMCItIf2IBJLTpFQs&slug=change-how-your-money-is-held If I understand correctly, you can choose to invest your Wise balance in stocks or in a fund of government-issued bonds with Blackrock.

But, if you need the money in the short term, it's not very wise (forgive the pun...) to invest it into the stockmarket...

Government-issued bonds are obviously safer in terms of credit risk (it's unlikely the UK etc will default) but they are not immune from interest rate risk; eg if you need to divest the day after rates have gone up a lot, good luck.

I find this Wise statement

https://wise.com/help/articles/GDxZxemd21yDVP4TQmdDJ/using-wise-interest?id=GDxZxemd21yDVP4TQmdDJ&slug=holding-your-money-in-an-interest-earning-fund

The main risks that can cause the value of the fund to decrease are the government defaulting or interests rates dropping to 0% or lower.

misleading, if not patently wrong.

I'm referring to the "interest" option. It's all exceptionally short term - see picture - and supposedly high credit quality stuff, I wouldn't worry. To cover their behinds they always have to have those sorts of risk statements. The point is, it's with Wise but at the same time isn't i.e. you're far less exposed to Wise's credit risk which is the risk we're far more worried about.

https://www.blackrock.com/cash/en-gb/products/229217/blackrock-ics-euro-gov-liquidity-premier-acc-t0-fund