Revolut Ltd, a British fin-tech company that offers banking services, has started shifting its customers to its Lithuanian entity Revolut Payments UAB, which is a e-money institution licensed and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania, as it prepares for UK’s exit from the European Union. The move is aimed at ensuring Revolut can continue to offer the same services to its non-UK customers in case of any Brexit outcome. The process is anticipated to be completed before the Brexit transition period, which is ending on 31 December 2020.
For those worried about the shift to Lithuania, there is no cause for concern as Revolut Payments UAB is just as strictly regulated and supervised by European Union authorities as Revolut Ltd was. On the national level, electronic money institutions are supervised by central banks of European Union member states, and each such central bank is simultaneously under the supervision of institutions of the European System of Financial Supervision and under the obligation to comply with all applicable European Union regulations. In fact, Revolut Payments UAB has been operating in Lithuania under an electronic money institution licence since the end of 2018.
After the migration the Revolut accounts will remain the same in nearly every way and the users will be able to use their accounts as normal. An old GB IBAN for receiving inbound payments will be replaced with new LT IBAN, however, users will still receive payments to their old GB IBAN for two months. After this time, payments to the GB IBAN will be returned to the sender. Therefore, it is important to update IBAN details, if required. The migration brings another very important duty for customers, who must notify new Lithuanian Revolut accounts to the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (since the Financial Administration does not obtain data on foreign accounts ex officio), as well as the date of the closure of old British Revolut accounts, which is expected to be received by users from Revolut.
A taxpayer must make a notification within 8 days after opening an account, whereby the registration of a new account and deregistration of an old account may be performed at the same time. The application may be submitted in two ways: (i) electronically through e-commerce services eDavki (on DR-Račun Form) or (ii) in person or by post (on DR-02 Form for natural persons, on DR-03 Form for natural persons with an activity, and on DR-04 Form for legal persons), at any financial office (except at the Special Financial Office and the General Financial Office). The list of financial offices with contact information is published on the website of the Financial Administration: contacts. The application must be accompanied by a document showing the foreign account information (for example bank card, contract on opening a bank account, screenshot of the IBAN account) so that the Financial Office may check the correctness and accuracy of the provided data. When entering the account number, it is necessary to be careful not to enter the bank card number but the account number. More information can be found on the websites of the Financial Administration for natural persons and for legal entities.
