Banking and nationality

NorwichMan

Say someone was born in the UK and always lived here, with British nationality and no dual nationality. Then at some point, in adulthood, they choose to apply to gain French nationality (through family links making this possible) to become a dual national, even though they intend, probably, to remain resident in the UK. If successful in gaining French citizenship, would they need to inform the (UK) banks where they hold accounts? Would there be any consequences to their banking arrangements due to the change? I note that banks ask about nationality when you apply for accounts, so this does seem to be important to them.

retiredbanker1

In most cases dual nationality is of no concern to banks as long as you are duelling with a good country not bad eg Russia.

In most cases it only affects your tax situation.

NorwichMan

Thank you. Now I'm wondering if there a good resource for researching how becoming a dual national might affect one's tax situation.

Brie

Banks care about where you live not what citizenship you have.  I can't remember if any have asked about my nationality (non uk) but that might because I applied so many years ago.  I've had new accounts set up in the last year but these are attached to accounts I've had for years/decades so might predate some current requirements.

It will become an issue if you uproots and move to France at which point Brexit rules will kick in and a UK based bank won't be able to maintain you as a customer.  

grumbler

Brie said:

Banks care about where you live not what citizenship you have.  I can't remember if any have asked about my nationality (non uk) but that might because I applied so many years ago.

All my recent applications had a question about other nationalities (citizenships). Even the application to a bank I have a current account with.

NorwichMan said:

... I'm wondering if there a good resource for researching how becoming a dual national might affect one's tax situation.

Your tax situation depends on the residency in the first place. It can change even with the same and only nationality. IIRC, US citizens have to pay some taxes regardless of their residency.

friolento

NorwichMan said:

Thank you. Now I'm wondering if there a good resource for researching how becoming a dual national might affect one's tax situation.

You can google for te respective Double Taxation Agreement between the UK and the country you are interested in. It’s often complex to understand so you might want to find a tax consultant with the relevant skills

Eco_Miser

Brie said:

Banks care about where you live not what citizenship you have.

They care very much if you are a US citizen, because most of them don't want to be involved with the IRS. They also care about citizens of various countries the British government want to take special interest in.

Edit: fix typo

Katiehound

Eco_Miser said:

Brie said:

Banks care about where you live not what citizenship you have.

  They also care about citizens of various counties the British government want to take special interest in.

had a snigger over this .Maybe not the counties (they don't care about us in the shires!) more probably the countries.