transfer of funds from UK - France for house purchase

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sue and paul
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transfer of funds from UK - France for house purchase

Post by sue and paul »

Received by email from my friend in Paris, on behalf of a third friend! I can advise her about our transfer of funds 9 years ago...the BNP Paribas directeur got rather embarrassed and just asked us where we got our funds from. No form-filling as I remember back then. Can anyone advise please on what is the procedure required in the email below.


"I have a question for a Brit. friend here who wants to transfer money from England to France for a deposit on a flat in Paris for her daughter. She fears all the bank's questions about the provenance. Could you possibly remember what sort of papers you had to provide in order to pay for your house in St André - and let me know asap? I understand if it's complicated, so don't worry if you can't. She's got herself into a bit of a state about it and we don't really know how to advise her. "
Pighunter
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Post by Pighunter »

Normally you just have to show proof of the trail and that the funds came from a legitimate source and are not being laundered.

Nothing to get too excited about unless there is something to hide.
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Helen
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Post by Helen »

Casting my mind back nine or so years, the memory is that it was all very straight forward. I opened an account with one of the currency transfer companies in order to fix the exchange rate for the purchase - and to do that they they did their own money-laundering due diligence stuff. But it was nothing more than how long I'd lived at UK address, UK bank details, passport etc. I think I also had to get a solicitor to testify I was who I said I was.

Then, with arrangements in place for the transfer, it was just a case of giving the currency company the RIB details for the notaire's account. There was probably one line on the documentation where I stated it was for purchase of a property in France.

I still transfer money across (in much smaller amounts!) and just state what it's for. It's never been questioned.
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Post by montgolfiere »

Check ou the rates and commissions very carefully. I have been using Transferwise and have saved at least 4% on most banks etc. The pound is very volatile at the moment .. moving 4 eurocents in as many days... up and then down.....
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Post by GrahamC »

In our recent experience transferring funds to a French bank account and then to the Notaire is a nightmare. The transfer to the French bank is easy and seamless. But getting money OUT of the French bank and into the Notaire's acccount is riddled with restrictions on transfer limits.

We used FTT Global. A good service and no problems with the provenance of the money.
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Post by Davidsimon »

"Alpari UK, an online foreign exchange dealer, said it was insolvent because of the scale of the losses suffered by its clients after the shock move by the Swiss sparked wild swings in the £3.5tn-a-day foreign exchange markets.

The repercussions of Thursday’s drama were being felt across the globe on Friday. In New Zealand, Global Brokers NZ said it was closing down as it could no longer meet local regulatory requirements and in New York the US foreign exchange brokerage FXCM was scrambling to raise funds to avert collapse. Shares in FXCM slumped 40% ahead of a formal announcement about its future after it admitted it faced $225m of losses.


Don't know what guarantees theses dealers give in comparison to the high street banks,but it's worth bearing in mind.
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Post by Allan »

Davidsimon wrote:"Alpari UK, an online foreign exchange dealer, said it was insolvent because of the scale of the losses suffered by its clients after the shock move by the Swiss sparked wild swings in the £3.5tn-a-day foreign exchange markets.

The repercussions of Thursday’s drama were being felt across the globe on Friday. In New Zealand, Global Brokers NZ said it was closing down as it could no longer meet local regulatory requirements and in New York the US foreign exchange brokerage FXCM was scrambling to raise funds to avert collapse. Shares in FXCM slumped 40% ahead of a formal announcement about its future after it admitted it faced $225m of losses.


Don't know what guarantees theses dealers give in comparison to the high street banks,but it's worth bearing in mind.


Companies such as Alpari UK are authorised by the regulator (the Financial Conduct Authority – FCA) to look after their customers’ money. This money must be held entirely separately to the company’s own funds – in other words, ‘client funds are segregated’. This is so that if the company itself goes bust, the money and assets owned by customers are not put at risk.

In the case of Alpari UK, the company specifically stated that “retail client funds continue to be segregated in accordance with FCA rules.” In short, regardless of the eventual outcome, if you had money with the company, it should be safe (bar any investment/trading losses actually related to the Swiss move).
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sue and paul
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Post by sue and paul »

Thanks to all who have replied. I have passed on your comments
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Post by martyn94 »

GrahamC wrote:In our recent experience transferring funds to a French bank account and then to the Notaire is a nightmare. The transfer to the French bank is easy and seamless. But getting money OUT of the French bank and into the Notaire's acccount is riddled with restrictions on transfer limits.

We used FTT Global. A good service and no problems with the provenance of the money.
But why transfer first to your French bank and then to the notaire? If you have their RIB, you can (and I did) do it in one.
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sue and paul
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Post by sue and paul »

Yes Martyn, you're right. 9 years ago we asked our solicitor in UK to hold our funds after sale of our house there, then he transferred the necessary amount to our notaire here. After that we opened our French bank account, and were just asked by the directeur where the funds were from.
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Post by montgolfiere »

New Anti laundering rules came into force in France on the 1/1...making Fund Transfers etc. much more 'regulated'.
(FYi The exchange rate with Transferwise yesterday was £1 = €1.378 on a transaction i made, with 0.5% Fees.)
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Just moved in to our new house in FR

Post by Hibouxknits »

Nothing complicated or delving.We'd sold our house and divided into two i.e. bought house in France & retained smaller in UK. Used Britline to transfer money from UK to Notaire direct,therefore not allowing for it to go via a 4 day tour and get lost! We had opened a Credit Agricole bank account,but proved a waste of time,as haven't needed to use it as of yet.
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