In Kreissparkasse Köln, a customer with a residence permit in Germany was denied a bank card

The case was reported by the project “Dovod”. According to its data, the refusal at Kreissparkasse Köln is linked to EU sanctions against Russians: they prohibit issuing bank cards to Russian citizens, but make an exception for residence permit holders.

The bank decided that the card can be valid only within the period of the residence permit. Usually such status in Germany is issued for one to three years, while bank cards are issued for four to five years, and this is exactly what Kreissparkasse considered grounds for refusal.

Financial consultant Natalia Smirnova said that she had encountered such an interpretation only among some clients from Germany, but she had also found similar cases in other sources specifically about Germany. According to her, German banks refer to the EU’s 19th sanctions package, and losing residence permit there means card closure.

The head of the human rights association “Iskra”, Gera Ugryumova, stated that formally the bank is right: the European Commission’s explanatory note says that the card’s validity period should not exceed the validity period of the residence permit. She added that the maximum validity period of a residence permit card is five years, but the countdown starts from the date of application.

Ugryumova warned that if such practice spreads to other banks, issuing a payment card may become impossible. She said that she has already sent an appeal on this issue to the European Commission’s Directorate for Finance, DG FISMA.

Sources

• Material: ru.themoscowtimes.com