Can anyone explain the new banking law?

Can anybody enlighten me on the new banking law, I have had a notification from my bank BBVA on line
that if I do not supply certain information they will put a block on my account,this will be difficult for me as I am spending time in the UK as I am getting over a hip replacement and don't expect to be returning until mid June
any help or info would be much appreciated.

Before you supply "certain information" on-line confirm the authenticity of the request ,contact BBVA phone , e/mail or via your solicitor Seeking clarification on the request.

Potentially the request could be a scam to glean account details for obvious reasons.

Take your time proceed with caution.

Please let us know the outcome.

It's not a scam. I posted last week that banks have until the 28th April to comply with a law from 5 years ago regarding money laundering and prevention of terrorism.
It is not just for expats but everybody in Spain. You are required to have your current (up to date) passport scanned into your records (or DNI for Spanish citizens). If you have money paid into the bank, you have to show where that money comes from and they are asking for payslips, pension notification or tax returns or invoices for employers and self employed.
I went to our bank and they said they have our passports scanned in and they are aware my income is from a pension so there was no need to do anything.
If the information is not provided (as in you refuse to do so) then accounts can be frozen until such time as it is.
The original law is an EC directive from 1999 and a Spanish law from 2010 (hence the five years) so the banks are starting to panic.
If you have not received a letter or notification on e-banking then you need to do nothing but it might be worth checking just in case.

Read your previous post,thanks.
It is a scam if the information requested is for account details, password etc.

Not that that was mentioned in the original post of course.

Is that for all banks? and is it if you have a regular amount bring paid in? What about putting cash in?

nevik wrote:Can anybody enlighten me on the new banking law, I have had a notification from my bank BBVA on line
that if I do not supply certain information they will put a block on my account,this will be difficult for me as I am spending time in the UK as I am getting over a hip replacement and don't expect to be returning until mid June
any help or info would be much appreciated.

We had a similar problem while in Spain in November - Our debit cards wouldn't work in the machines (We are with Sabadel). Went into the bank and asked why, they said the cards were blocked until we provided our passports to be copied & verified by the bank. I said we had had no notification of this. They said we should have had a letter but we definitely didn't!
It was very fortunate that we had just arrived in Spain when this happened and it was sorted quickly and our cards were unblocked.

I did ask at the time what would have happened if this had happened while we were in the UK, as we have Direct Debits for utilities that need to be paid - The answer was that the Direct Debits would still be paid but we would not be able to take money out of the account. Luckily we don't need to take out money while in the UK but I really hope that this info is correct, otherwise there will be lots of people with holiday homes having their utilities cut-off.

I think the information they need is to have is a verified passport copy. They didn't ask us about money verification but we don't have money paid into the bank regularly.

If I was you, nevik, I would email the bank and ask what they need from you. You may be able to fill in a form and send them a copy of your passport certified by your UK bank (We did this when we were buying the house and it was acceptable). You could also ask if your Direct Debits will still be paid during this time, as that is the most important thing to know.

Best wishes with the hip-replacement - We are in the same position, as my husband is going in hospital in a few weeks for his and we are missing out on the next few months in Spain.

Jan

Jan your dead right if the direct debits are honoured ???, it could lead to major problems if utilities are not payed it would be a nightmare if they were returned unpaid.
Dot don't know the answer to your question,but were over in a couple of weeks and were taking the advice from Marcliff and double checking at the bank when were over next.

We are with Caja Rural Central bank alongside the town hall Guardamar, we swapped last March 2014 from Lloyds just before they changed to Sabadell. They scanned our passports when we opened the joint non resident account.

We received this notification also from Barclays in Spain.
We went into the Quesada branch & had our passports scanned & details checked.
Everything is now in order.

Jordy

We had exactly the same thing luckily we spoke to someone that day rather than pay money in via the machine which is what we normally do,they needed a copy of our passports,and Bank statements from England showing our pensions being paid in as proof of where our income was coming from,if not our account would have been frozen and no standing orders paid,it's all to do with money laundering.