Europe’s Expat Banking Shake-Up 2025: What Every Foreigner Must Prepare For

Several slow-moving trends are now converging and directly affecting expats who live, work and pay taxes in more than one country.

• Stronger EU and national supervision of banks and payment providers.
• Stricter access to some foreign accounts, especially in Switzerland.
• Quiet but steady increases in banking fees across many countries.

Individually, each change looks technical. Taken together, they reshape how expats receive salaries, move money between currencies, pay tuition, support family abroad and manage savings.

Previous articles on this site, such as Expat Banking 2025: Hidden Fees, IBAN Discrimination, Transfers and EU Banking 2025: IBAN, SEPA Instant, Strategies for Expats, analysed some of these shifts in detail. This new overview brings everything together so you can decide where to hold your accounts, which cards to use and how to stop silent banking costs from eating into your expat budget.

On paper, any IBAN from the SEPA area should be treated like a local one for euro payments. In practice, many expats still see their IBAN refused when they use accounts from providers such as Wise, Revolut or N26.

What changes in 2025 according to supervisors and regulators:

• Faster and more consistent fines for companies that refuse a valid SEPA IBAN without justification.
• Stronger pressure on banks and payment processors to fix outdated systems.
• Better visibility of consumer platforms where you can report illegal IBAN refusals, such as IBANDiscrimination.eu.

For expats, the message is clear. Using a German, Lithuanian or Belgian IBAN with a digital bank should no longer be a structural obstacle for basic bills in France, Spain, Italy or elsewhere in the euro area. When a provider refuses your IBAN, you are increasingly on solid ground to push back in writing and, if needed, switch provider.

For a broader deep dive into these issues, you can also read Expat Banking 2025: Hidden Fees, IBAN Discrimination, Transfers and EU Banking 2025: IBAN, SEPA Instant, Strategies for Expats, which look at these rules and their consequences in detail.

Many traditional banks have kept official price lists relatively stable while increasing what is least visible: FX margins, cross-border payment fees and certain card charges abroad.

Key cost drivers to watch when you live across borders include:

• Monthly account and card fees that have crept up by a few euros.
• Extra charges on payments and ATM withdrawals outside the euro area.
• Hidden FX spreads when you convert salary, pensions or savings from one currency to another.

The most common trap is the FX spread. The bank advertises something close to zero commission or preferential rate, but quietly applies a rate that is one or two percent worse than the real market rate.

On a 7,000 CHF salary converted to euros every month, a spread of just under two percent already means more than one hundred francs per month and over one thousand five hundred francs per year. Over several years, that is easily worth several months of rent.

For more detailed examples of transfers, conversions and total yearly cost, you can combine this article with International Money Transfers from France 2025 and the longer guides on best banks for expats in Europe, especially Best Banks for Expats in Europe 2025 and Best Banks for Expats 2025.

For many cross-border workers and expats, Switzerland remains a central part of their banking setup, especially when salaries are paid in Swiss francs. At the same time, international regulation and compliance pressure have led some Swiss banks to narrow access for EU residents.

The main trends that continue into 2025 are:

• Heavier paperwork on tax residence and source of funds.
• Higher minimum balance requirements for certain account types.
• Closures of accounts seen as too small or too complex to monitor.

For an expat or cross-border worker who wants to keep a Swiss account, it becomes even more important to separate clearly:

• An operational account for salaries and day-to-day spending in CHF.
• A multi-currency account to convert CHF to EUR on your own terms.
• One or more accounts in the country of residence for rent, taxes and local life.

The guide France–Switzerland Cross-Border Workers on this site shows how to combine these accounts in practice without being trapped between incompatible systems.

To deal with complex transfers and multiple currencies, many expats are turning to dedicated multi-currency providers. Frequently cited players include Wise, Revolut, N26, Monese and Bunq.

Their common promise:

• FX rates close to the real mid-market rate, with clearly stated fees.
• The ability to hold several currencies (for example EUR, CHF, GBP, USD) in one place.
• Cards that work in most countries on more transparent terms than many traditional banks.
• Mobile apps that make it easier to track and analyse spending.

For an expat who must pay rent in euros, tuition in another currency and support family in a third country, such accounts often become the central pillar of their system.

The limitations are real, however. Some employers, landlords or public bodies still refuse the IBANs attached to these providers, and compliance checks can feel intrusive when flows are large or complex.

Framing the question as fintech versus traditional bank no longer reflects how most expats operate. In practice, many now mix:

• One local bank for rent, utilities, taxes and certain loans.
• One or two multi-currency providers for transfers and travel.
• One home-country account to keep a track record and manage legacy contracts.

Brick-and-mortar banks still have real strengths: they are often better recognised by landlords, employers and local administration. Fintechs usually win on transparency, speed and user experience.

The goal is not to pick one camp but to design a combined system that:

• Reduces admin friction and IBAN-related refusals.
• Limits hidden FX and cross-border fees.
• Stays simple enough to manage when you move country again.

Articles such as Switching Bank Accounts in Europe and Opening a European Bank Account provide concrete examples of these combinations based on real expat profiles.

A simple but resilient setup for many expats looks like this:

1. One local account in your country of residence for salary, rent, utilities and taxes.
2. One multi-currency account to handle FX between EUR, CHF, GBP, USD and to receive international income.
3. One home-country account kept for tax, refunds and some savings or pension products.
4. One payment card optimised for travel, with lower FX and ATM fees abroad.

This layered system avoids over-dependence on a single bank and makes it easier to adapt when you switch country, change job status or face new regulations.

For more step-by-step guidance on building this structure, you can rely on the existing pillar guides about expat banking, cross-border work and digital nomads, especially the guide Best Banks for Expats in Europe 2025 and the article on new rules for remote workers in Digital Nomads 2025.

Depending on your profile, certain providers stand out again and again in expat feedback. A few examples:

• Wise for currency exchanges and multi-currency transfers at transparent rates.
• Revolut for an all-in-one app, virtual cards and solid everyday analytics.
• Bunq for a full European bank with multiple IBANs in several countries.
• Degiro or Trade Republic to separate investing from day-to-day banking.

In France, online banks such as Boursorama Banque, Fortuneo and Hello bank!" provide low-cost current accounts with French IBANs, which remain useful for many administrative tasks.

In Switzerland, providers like Neon, Zak and Yuh offer lighter alternatives to traditional banks while staying compatible with local salary payments.

Whatever mix you choose, the crucial point is to keep an overview of all accounts, review fee schedules regularly and stay ready to adjust your setup if costs or conditions become unfavourable.

To avoid being caught off guard by 2025 changes and fee increases, it is worth taking a quiet hour before the new year to review your banking organisation:

• List every account you still hold and decide which ones have a clear role.
• Look at the last twelve months of fees for each bank: account, cards, transfers, FX.
• Test at least one international transfer with a specialised provider to compare FX rates with your current bank.
• Check that your IBAN is accepted for critical bills such as rent, energy, phone and insurance.
• Set up scheduled transfers between accounts so you avoid unnecessary, ad hoc conversions.

The aim is not to rebuild everything overnight, but to move from a passive, inherited setup to an intentional banking strategy that supports your life abroad instead of draining it.

Ongoing EU initiatives suggest a slow but real move towards a more integrated banking space, with:

• Instant euro payments widely available at low or no extra cost.
• Stronger enforcement against IBAN-based discrimination and country-of-account bias.
• Clearer disclosure of FX spreads and cross-border fees on cards and transfers.

For expats, this opens the possibility of designing a genuinely European banking setup rather than just stacking separate national accounts. Differences between countries will remain for a long time, but the direction of travel is clear.

Until that future arrives, the most effective approach is to combine one local account, one multi-currency account and one home-country account, to stay alert on fees and to use your rights when a provider refuses your IBAN without valid reason.