[OSM-talk] Funding drive – Improving OSM reliability and performance

[Steve Doerr]

On 02/12/2011 16:26, Tom Hughes wrote:
> On 02/12/11 16:13, Andreas Labres wrote:
>
>> What is interesting for all of us living in European counties:
>>
>> Can donations be made via SEPA money transfer to the bank account of 
>> the foundation?
>
> I may be wrong but I think the foundation only has a UK sterling 
> account which means that the technical answer may be yes, in that the 
> UK is part of SEPA but the practical answer may be no in that a UK 
> bank will want to levy silly fees.
>

On the contrary, many UK banks do participate in SEPA and are therefore 
obliged to treat SEPA transfers from other participating banks in the 
same way as domestic transfers. SEPA maintains a list of participating 
banks on their web site. You need to check the specific SWIFT code of 
the bank account concerned - for instance, some bits of Lloyds Banking 
Group are participants but, last time I looked, Halifax (part of LBG) 
was not. I have a Portuguese euro bank account with BBVA (a Spanish 
bank) and when I request an international transfer on their web site, I 
have to select the target bank's SWIFT code from a list and it tells me 
immediately whether that bank is a SEPA participant or not. 
Surprisingly, being in a different currency doesn't seem to make a 
difference to the rules about equal treatment.

-- 
Steve