Help overseas pensioners in Greece: Equiniti
Equiniti has put contingency plans in place to help UK pensioners who may be caught up in Greece’s economic woes.
According to Andy Brown, operations director for Equiniti International Payments, if Greece were to change currency, there could be a complete closedown of its banking infrastructure, resulting in a freezing of any money movements, for up to two weeks.
This could affect some or all of the pensioners who live in Greece, all of whom are paid in euros.
As a result, the firm, which manages the payments of more than 60,000 expat pensioners, has put in place processes to find payment solutions, given the exact nature of any exit.
Equiniti will ensure the minimum of disruption to pensioners’ payments, and will act to minimise the amount of pension schemes and pensioners that could be caught up in the international banking system for the duration of any such incident.
He said it would also maintain fully auditable bank account reconciliations to ensure all pension scheme money can be accounted for.
Mr Brown added: “It is important to identify the specific risks and plan accordingly to ensure the minimum of disruption to pensioners and their pension schemes.”
Adviser View
Sam Instone, chief executive of international advisory firm AES International, said: “One of the fundamental rules of being an expat is that if you are from country A and move to country B then you should bank in country C. The situation in Greece highlights exactly why this is of paramount importance.
“We would advise British expatriates living in Greece to act immediately to move their money to a secure, highly regulated centre governed by UK law, like the Isle of Man. There are innumerable examples of governments around the world dipping into banks in times of crisis – this happened in Cyprus just two years ago and in Argentina before that.
“Greece is heading into unchartered territory and so it is hard to gauge exactly what will happen. What is clear is that now is not the time to have big assets tied up in local banks. People may also want to be cautious about any income they are receiving from elsewhere, as they may find domestic taxes are increased significantly, particularly for foreign residents.”
