Foreign Exchange
Step–by–step guide
Our Retail Foreign Exchange product is designed for individuals resident in the UK undertaking a low volume of Euro to Sterling, or visa versa, conversions.
Should you require foreign exchange services as a non–UK resident, or for several transactions, or require transactions on behalf of a limited company, a full account relationship is required. Please contact us for a confidential discussion of your requirements.
We will require details of the account your Sterling or Euro funds will come from and details of the account your converted funds are to be paid to. We will also require documents supporting your identity and may ask for documents supporting the transaction. Please allow sufficient time for these to be received and checked by us and for your funds to clear through the banking system.
The Retail FX product would typically suit Mr Smith who is buying a house in France and needs to convert GBP to pay €16,000 to his solicitor on exchange within the next four weeks, followed, two months later, by a further conversion of GBP to provide €100,000 completion monies. Likewise, Ms Taylor, who is selling her Italian flat for €70,000 in 2 weeks, wants to convert the Euro proceeds to GBP and pay the GBP to her bank account in the UK.
If you're unsure that this product applies to you, or you would like to know more, please contact us for a confidential discussion of your requirements and how we can help.
Step 1 – Open a Retail Foreign Exchange Account
A Retail Foreign Exchange (“FX”) Account is easy to open and can be completed within a matter of hours. We require you to complete our Retail Foreign Exchange Application Form and send it to us either with supporting documentation or ahead of the documentation by fax or email. Please ensure you have read and understood our Retail FX Terms and Conditions and have confirmed that you have done so, where required on the form, as we cannot open a Retail FX account for you unless you have done this.
1. Complete our Retail Foreign Exchange Application Form:
This form may be downloaded to your computer or printed directly from this website. Click here for the form. Guidance notes are available by clicking on this link.
The form requires, among other things, you to state the date you want to pay the Euros/Sterling. You should allow enough time for the required documents to be received and processed by us, and for the agreed Sterling/Euro amount to clear our bank account.
2. Fast–track: send us the form electronically
- You may fax the completed and signed form, or email an image of it, to us for a fast-track response, with the required documents (stage 3 below) to follow by post.
- Once we have received the form we will contact you to discuss your requirements and, if we are satisfied with the information provided, then proceed to Step 2.
- However, Step 2 will still need to be completed before money can be paid to the destination account.
3. Send us the form and the required documents
The original completed Retail Foreign Exchange Application Form (regardless of whether you have already sent a form electronically to us under the fast–track (stage 2) procedure above) will need to be sent to us by post together with the required documents as follows:
Required documents
We have a legal responsibility to combat money laundering. Consequently we require documentary evidence that supports who you are and, in some cases, the reasons for the payment.
The required documents can be originals (we advise that you use registered post) or copies that have been certified in accordance with our certification procedure and by a competent authority (see below).
About you*: One of the following current documents is required to verify your name and date of birth:
- Passport
- UK photo card driving license
About your address*: One of the following documents, dated within the last 3 months, is required to verify your address:
- Utility bill e.g. water/gas/electricity
- Bank Statement
- Inland Revenue notice of tax coding or tax assessment
* If you have previously transacted a foreign exchange deal with us and wish to deal again these documents needn’t be provided again, unless your details have changed (such as your address or payment reason). Depending upon your circumstances a full account relationship may be required.
About your payment purpose:
- Where the payment sum is £50,000/€70,000 or more we require documents supporting the purpose of the foreign exchange deal (such as a sales agreement/purchase contract for an overseas property).
- For lesser amounts we may request such documents before we will open a Retail FX Account.
About your designated recipient: We may require documents supporting the designated recipient (and their bank details) of your payment.
Certification procedure:
- Copies of passports or UK photo-driving license must as a minimum read “Certified a true copy of the original and likeness to the holder agreed”
- Copies of documents verifying your address must as a minimum read “Certified a true copy of the original”.
- All certified copies must carry sufficient information to enable Piraeus Bank to identify the certifying individual and their place of work, and to assess their status. The certifying organisation's stamp (if any) should be applied, and the certifying individual must state their name and position/rank, and date and sign the copy document.
Competent authorities for certifying documents – any of the following:
- Practicing solicitor or notary
- Policeman or Medical Practioner
- Local Greek consulate/embassy
- A Piraeus Bank Group branch officer
- A FSA authorised body (such as a UK bank or mortgage adviser)
4. We'll contact you to confirm the Retail FX Account has been opened
Once we received your documents we need to check that they meet our requirements.
Once we have done this and we are satisfied that everything is in order we will contact you to confirm that a Retail FX Account has been opened and that you may proceed to deal with us to sell Euros/Sterling and buy Sterling/Euros.
We will provide you with a Retail FX account number (beginning '0037' followed by four numbers) and an IBAN reference (22 characters). You will need to quote this account number when communicating with us (such as when you contact us to obtain a quote, whether or not you deal) and when paying us GBP. For Euro payments you will need to quote the IBAN
Please note that the provision of the required documents per se does not guarantee that we will automatically open a Retail FX Account for you. We may ask for further information and/or refuse to open a Retail FX Account and we are not obliged to disclose reasons for not opening a Retail FX Account.
We will return any original documents, you send us, to you by registered post.
Step 2 – Deal over the phone and arrange to pay us your sold currency
1. Once confirmation that the Retail Foreign Exchange Application Form has been satisfactorily processed we can progress to a foreign exchange deal whereby you contract with us to sell Euros or Sterling to us, and in exchange you buy Sterling or Euros from us and we pay your bought Sterling or Euros to your designated recipient.
The foreign exchange deal can be struck up to 12 months from when the account is opened. Retail FX Accounts which remain inactive for periods longer than 12 months will automatically close.
2. Contact us to obtain a foreign exchange rate over the phone – this may differ to the rate reported on our website, or previously quoted to you as an indicative rate, due to market volatility, and/or the sums involved, and/or the date you wish to make payment in the currency you are buying.
3. If you wish to proceed with the foreign exchange deal (you may, of course, decline to deal at that point and contact us later for another quote) you must inform us at the time the rate is quoted to you over the phone and confirm that the designated recipient’s details are correct*. We’ll provide a reference number and tell you the amount you need to pay us, inclusive of charges if any (follow this link for details of our charges).
* Should the designated recipient’s details have changed we will require documents supporting the change.
4. You may, of course, wish to hold out for an improvement in foreign exchange rates – but we will not, and cannot, advise you on this matter. You can contact us up to one month from when the Retail FX Account is opened for rate quotes. (If you haven’t dealt under your Retail FX Account after one month of it being opened, it will automatically be closed and you will need to complete the application process afresh should you still wish to deal).
5. Having agreed the foreign exchange deal you will have entered into an irrevocable contract with us and you cannot cancel it. Please note that all telephone conversations are recorded, and the recordings will be referred to in the event of a dispute.
6. You will receive a confirmation of the foreign exchange deal. This will confirm the amounts bought and sold and the exchange rate achieved. Please note that your verbal instruction to deal is the contract between us and yourself. The confirmation is simply a receipt of your transaction.
7. Before we will pay your bought currency to your designated recipient we require receipt of cleared funds of your sold currency and completion of the account opening process.
Pay us by electronic transfer. DO NOT send a cheque. Our bank details are:
| GBP Sterling |
Bank name: |
Piraeus Bank |
| |
Sort code: |
40-52-74 |
| |
Account name: |
Your name |
| |
Account number: |
Your 8 digit account number ('03xxxxxx') |
| |
Reference |
Retail FX |
|
| Euros |
Bank name: |
Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt |
| |
SWIFT code: |
DEUTDEFF |
| |
Account name: |
Piraeus Bank London (SWIFT PIRBGB2L) |
| |
Account number: |
10092726830000 |
| |
Reference: |
Your name & 8 digit account number ('03xxxxxx') |
|
Step 3 – We'll pay your bought currency to the account of your designated recipient
You should note that some banks make a charge to pay or receive funds for their account holders, and may deduct the charge from the amount paid or received. These charges are outside of our control and consequently we recommend that you confirm the existence and amount of these charges before you agree with us the amount of Euros/Sterling you wish to buy from us.
Should the designated recipient’s details have changed we will require written confirmation of the change.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss any aspect of your currency transaction. For security purposes we will require that you quote your password and/or other personal details stated on the Retail Foreign Exchange Application Form.