I have a bank account in UK ,just for visits and family birthdays etc. Our pensions are paid into our French account.
Every 2 or 3 years we transfer funds to our UK account. We have used Wise (transferwise). We are now unable to transfer the funds on-line to Wise in Belgium. I have contacted our bank head office in Paris and they inform me that it has not been possible to do this since March 2022 , although they did not say why. Furthermore our local manager has also said she cannot do it on our behalf , but can transfer the funds directly to our uk account. Does anyone know why this should be, or are our bank simply wishing to eliminate forex companies for obvious reasons, ? Also , we do not have an account with Wise , using them just for transfers - do we need to declare Wise on our tax returns ?
I suggest you contact Wise. I’ve certainly had no problems with them and move money every few weeks. I’m based in France and I’m usually transferring money from the UK to France and moving small amounts. Occasionally I move Euros into my Wise euro account from my French C/A account and pay out those euros from my Wise a/c. I’m using my debit cards (UK and French) to do these transactions and so I don’t need to have any direct contact with either of my banks as such.
I wonder whether it has something to do with Wise requiring its customers to be verified? Since they don’t have branches they way they asked their customers to do it was to take a selfie with a mobile phone and send it to them. Hence my suggestion you contact Wise.
I have contacted Wise. They know of no reason for this. I will try another forex company.
Like @SuePJ I have also had no problem with Wise. Obviously if you are going elsewhere, you won’t need to know about the tax implications but if you were only using it for transfers without actually holding money in it, you do not need to declare it for tax as it isn’t, technically, an account.
but for completeness, I would certainly recommend that you do so since the Wise account has the capability of holding funds and there is no FR IBAN so far as I know.
It is a simple matter to declare the account on the cerfa 3916 form along with your tax return.
In a week or so’s time, I will be posting my tax help files for the 2023 tax round which (amongst other things) explains how to fill the 3916 forms in.
The following is the narrative from the 2022 tax help files for reference. As far as I’m aware currently, there have been no changes to this requirement.
3916: If you have a bank account outside France, then you must declare it on that form (section1 and 4). One form per account. Or if you have a lot, on a blank A4 paper. All bank accounts, life insurance policies and digital assets contract opened, held, used or closed abroad during the year.
This includes accounts opened with banks, investment service providers, public administrations or individuals such as notaries or money changers that receive deposits in securities, shares or cash on a regular basis. It also includes life insurance policies taken out with insurance companies and similar institutions. It does not, however, concern accounts used to make payments for online purchases or deposits concerning sales of goods that total less than €10,000 a year for all accounts taken together, where such accounts that were used for transactions are backed by one or more accounts opened in France.
Agreed. We are great believers in OVERdeclaring. Much better to tell them too much than too little. 
can I just check something with you since I think I may be missing some finer point here…
Are you trying to transfer EUR to a GBP account in the UK using Wise or GBP?
If you have your pensions paid in to your French a/c in EUR, are Wise indicating that you cannot transfer EUR to your Wise a/c and thus convert EUR to GBP to send to your UK GBP account (or what methodology are you actually attempting to use to get the funds to Wise).
An explanation might help other Wise users understand your issue.
Hi Graham - just to clarify.
I do not have a Wise account.
My UK pensions are paid in euros directly to my French bank account.
I am attempting to do an on-line transfer (in Euros ) to Wise in Brussells from My French bank account.
Wise would then pay the equivalent in sterling into my UK bank account.
My French bank say I cannot do an on-line transfer to Wise (since march 2022). ------but I did do it in 2021.
Wise say they know of no problems.
My local manager has offered to make a transfer in euros to my UK bank.
Ah OK. Understand a bit more now. In the circumstances mentioned I believe there is no requirement to report the Wise relationship to the Fisc.
Using your French bank account for a currency transfer in GPB to the UK may prove to be expensive. There are other players such as TorFX as an example who I am sure will do that for you and undertake any checks required.
If interested, I can give you the details of the senior account manager I have used in the past who would be able to advise you properly on this.
Seems clear the French bank concerned made a decision to ban transfers to Fintechs.
I’ll bet you anything if you ask your bank can you set up any of the following as a payee “bénéficiaire” and wish to transfer money to them from time to time the French bank will say “non”.
Try them on N26, Monzo, Monese… how about Revolut. Go on, try them. Yeah it’s for obvious reasons. They’ll probably try to say it’s for “your” “safety”.
Practically, I’d suggest opening an account with Starling who are a bank and not just a fintech with a great app that’s very clear on currencies. But I suspect your French bank would make that as financially painful (weighted exchange rate, possible fees) as they seem to be intending to, as to your current UK bank.
Please let us know how this ends and if you could say which French bank and ideally which département the bank is in, would help me ensure to avoid that bank
What I don’t understand is why your French bank is blocking this or indeed how it is able to. I have a euro a/c with Wise. If I wish to put euros into that a/c I just use my C/A (Credit Agricole) euro debit card and transfer the money. It’s exactly the same as if I had used my C/A debit card to buy something in euros on line. I put in my bank card details and the money is there.
Once those euros are in my Wise euro a/c I can use them any way I like - to transfer to another euro a/c or to buy sterling and deposit into my UK bank a/c. At no point does C/A have any “say” in this. I’m not surprised Wise can’t understand why you have a problem with your bank.
My only thought is, are you transferring a considerable sum of money that somehow comes under some special conditions by your bank that require additional verification?
But you need a Wise account to transfer money to them. Wise is a Bank.
Can the do that? I wouldn’t have thought so. Wise has normal banking licences. I just logged onto my Wise account to check. My Euro account is in Brussels, with a Belgian IBAN, my Sterling account is in London with a UK IBAN and my Aussie account is in Melbourne with a BSB code, etc, etc.
I’ve transferred six figure sums from my account here (non Wise) to my Oz Wise A/C with no issues, apart from having to tell the bank here the purposes of the transfers, for money laundering reasons probably.
errrr no I don’t think Wise has a banking licence? I really like them, and I’d love that to be the case, but I believe they’re a fintech only so far?
If you’d moved them via your Wise Belgian IBAN I am wondering if you’d have been asked anything at all
I am guessing that like with merchants on credit card systems, perhaps there is a kind of merchant type code attached to the receiving account owner ie Wise, that indicates fintech and I suppose a French bank could make a decision to block that merchant type.
I’ve got an idea UK banks could block payments to, say, Ladbrokes in their apps as they’d identified Ladbrokes as being in a gambling category.
You’re right, which is news to me. I assumed that to able to issue IBANs etc. they’d need to be a bank. I thought that was the whole thrust of their rebranding from TranferWise to Wise. I never leave funds with them anyway, not least because they were charging negative interest. But their credit card is handy for getting the best rate on small over the counter foreign currency transactions when travelling.
My Bank here doesn’t like giving me my own money back 
I did use Wise Belgian IBAN and I have double checked it . It was rejected every time.
Incidentally - if I wish to pay or transfer other than in France or Monaco I have to get specific authorisation for that country and for a maximum amount. The authorisations lasts for 3 months only. After that I have to re apply , which takes a few days.
Hi Karen - I did use Wise Belgian IBAN - It was rejected every time.
Ohh, I don’t like the sound of that, I’d move bank if they tried to restrict me. Which institution are you with, I’m with HSBC France (and in the UK) but they’ve been divested to some other crowd as HSBC is focusing on the Far East. They promise nothing will change, we’ll see 
I had a nasty experience with SocGen in 1983 and I haven’t dealt with a French bank since. Not that I bear grudges or anything 