Money laundering

Money laundering is a huge problem here in Spain. Money laundering is where disreputable people (usually crooks and drug dealers) try to make illegitimate money look legitimate. They then use that money to buy houses, cars, artwork and businesses.

To clamp down on this, banks were required to obtain up-to-date information about their clients from 2010. The banks have been slow to do this and have now reached their deadline.

The information they need is your NIE, passport details and more often than not, proof of your income. They have until the 30th April to obtain this information, after that they will  be required to put an embargo on your accounts until the information has been supplied.

What to do

If you have been contacted by your bank to supply the information, you should do so as soon as possible. If they haven’t contacted you, it might be as well to contact them.

In our case, we were asked to take our passports to the bank which we did. When we were there, the lady told us that they also needed proof of address and proof of sources of income. What I have sent them are our P60s from last year and the letters from the Pensions Service which show the amount of our State Pensions. Since those letters have our addresses on them, I have assumed they will suffice as proof of address. 

The information that I have sent is concrete proof that all of the income into our accounts has been obtained legitimately.