I've used happily for the last few years Wise to affordably transfer money between Aotearoa NZ and the EU.

Now my parents tried to contribute some money to our son's hobby. The transfer has been rejected by the local (German) bank (the city's Sparkasse). This screams to me like discrimination and/or censorship (maybe to suppress competition on lucrative transactions).

I've just done a bit of research. And it seems illegal since 2014 – though not uncommon – for European banks to bar transactions to/from banks with a different origin nation's IBAN (international bank account number).

It makes me furious!!!

It's like demanding DOCX formats even though PDF or ODT are a legal requirement.

#Wise #moneytransfer #InternationalBanking #IBANdiscrimination #Sparkasse