Credit cards and CRS

[7889]

Does anyone have definitive answer on whether or not credit card accounts are reported or not under CRS?
I was sure they were NOT, but after reading original CRS papers i'm not so sure anymore
If they are not, that certainly opens some interesting possibilities, because in many countries (HK, for instance) credit card bills can be settled by anyone (not necessarily the cardholder himself) and only card number is required for such transfer, not even cardholder's name. Cardholder and bill settlor don't have to be from the same bank too.
So, basically, you can spend money on your credit card, and settle bills using some "unrelated" company, and it's not reported
Too good to be true?

 

[Martin Everson]

Does anyone have definitive answer on whether or not credit card accounts are reported or not under CRS?

Under CRS all credit cards are reported unless the the Financial Institution issuing the card is a Qualified Card Issuer.

A Qualified Credit Card Issuer is a Financial Institution meeting the following requirements:

1) it is a Financial Institution solely because it is a credit card issuer that accepts deposits only when a customer makes a payment in excess of a balance due with respect to the card and the overpayment is not immediately returned to the customer; and

2) beginning on or before 1 January 2016, it implements policies and procedures either to prevent a customer from making an overpayment in excess of the balance due with respect to the card and higher than an amount equivalent to USD 50,000 or to ensure that any customer overpayment in excess of USD 50,000 is refunded to the customer within 60 days. The amount is established by applying account aggregation and currency translation rules. For this purpose, a customer overpayment does not refer to credit balances to the extent of disputed charges but does include credit balances resulting from merchandise returns.

Depository Accounts include the following:
- current accounts
- savings passbooks
- thrift accounts
- certificates of deposit
- savings certificates
- investment certificates
- registered prepaid cards and bearer cards with IBAN (only inbound prepaid cards with IBAN, which are not interest bearing and are always below the threshold of € 2,500.00, are excluded from due diligence and reporting procedures). For these typologies, only the value of the balance as of 31 December shall be reported, since these instruments are not interest bearing.

Too good to be true?

Yes

It gets worse as this loophole is well documented and many EU countries have already made direct requests to Visa/Mastercard Europe and Amex US for all data on their citizens cards for a while now. Some banks such as EPB have lost card providers (PFS) following this . It only came to light when the Netherlands had to go through the court system for Amex data because the client data is held in the US. However, even the US data has been handed over easily. Visa/Mastercard was all done out of EU so no press release.....lol.

Court Authorizes Service of John Doe Summons Seeking Information About Dutch Residents Using American Express Cards Linked to Non-Dutch Bank Accounts

A federal court in Texas authorized the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a John Doe Summons on American Express Travel Related Services Company, the Justice Department announced. The IRS John Doe summons seeks information about persons residing in the Netherlands that have American...

www.justice.gov

Hey but good luck anyway

 

[7889]

Thanks! That's a great reply. For slower guys like me, could you give an example of Qualified Card Issuer? I'm still not sure how to make a clear distinction. Is any bank by default a Qualified Card Issuer or not? Who can even issue credit cards other than banks or credit unions?
Do you know about charge cards? Are they treated the same as credit cards?

 

[Martin Everson]

Thanks! That's a great reply. For slower guys like me, could you give an example of Qualified Card Issuer? I'm still not sure how to make a clear distinction. Is any bank by default a Qualified Card Issuer or not? Who can even issue credit cards other than banks or credit unions?
Do you know about charge cards? Are they treated the same as credit cards?

You need to ask your card issuer themselves. Simply ask if they report you under CRS or check the terms and conditions to see if there is a CRS section.

 

[Milky Moon]

Only Belfius bank has the courtesy to inform their non-resident customers on their CSR activities. (ie they report every year what they shared with whom and why).

No other EU/CH banks (and brokers)(and credit card business units of said banks) does this (faik).

 

[TurnedToRobot]

I wonder why the EMI's and banks don't publish what they send to the authorities and when they do it, it's strange that this actually is not a requirement

 

[Milky Moon]

OFAIK, only LeuPay reports CRS, other EMI's do not do this.

 

[Martin Everson]

I wonder why the EMI's and banks don't publish what they send to the authorities and when they do it, it's strange that this actually is not a requirement

You will never get a straight answer from any of them because outside of Private banking they all have contempt for their customers.

 

[TurnedToRobot]

OFAIK, only LeuPay reports CRS, other EMI's do not do this.

Do you guarantee that?

You will never get a straight answer from any of them because outside of Private banking they all have contempt for their customers.

I agree?

 

[Larry]

Do you guarantee that?

Yes it's the truth you can ask them via their support chat. LeuPay is the only EMI I know that asks you to provide your personal tax number you get at the day you where born.
Bunq also does that but they are real bank so LeuPay ist currently the only well known EMI that report.

 

[TurnedToRobot]

I didn't ask you @Larry, sorry! What I can ask LeuPay is not a question. I ask @Milky Moon if he guarantee that EMI's not report anyone!

 

[daxbr]

Only prudent to act under assumption they will report and use any information one provides to them voluntarily.

My concern is if they customarily research other databases like Equifax to obtain more info and based on that report it to all current and past countries.

Example: Customer opens resident account in Panama providing Panama permanent resident card only. Bank does Equifax search for last name and dob and finds out the customer is US and EU country citizen. Does the bank automatically report to those 2 countries?

 

[Martin Everson]

Example: Customer opens resident account in Panama providing Panama permanent resident card only. Bank does Equifax search for last name and dob and finds out the customer is US and EU country citizen. Does the bank automatically report to those 2 countries?

They have a duty to report too if they have obtained indicia on a client. They must report to all countries where they have this indicia. They cannot just ignore the info the have as that opens them up to negligent behavior and poor KYC whole new can of worms.