Switching from a Belgian bank to a neobank

No, not through the interbank mobility service. The Belgian mechanism that moves your direct debits and notifies your employer only works between credit institutions located in Belgium. Moving to Revolut, N26 or bunq, everything is manual. Here is the exact scope, regulations in hand, and the real timelines.

The interbank mobility service stops at institutions located in Belgium

The interbank mobility service, which the sector calls Bankswitching, lets your new bank handle closing the old current account, transferring the balance, moving standing orders and notifying direct debit creditors. It is free. You never contact your old bank.

Its regulations say something, right in the definitions chapter, that nobody passes on. Both the Old Bank and the New Bank are defined as "the credit institution located in Belgium" holding the account. The wording is short and it closes the door.

Revolut is licensed in Lithuania, N26 in Germany, bunq in the Netherlands, and Wise is an electronic money institution rather than a bank. None of those four appears on the list of participating banks published by Febelfin, the Belgian financial sector federation, for the savings side, which lists Argenta, Bank Van Breda, Banque CPH, Belfius, Beobank, BNP Paribas Fortis, CBC Banque, Crelan, Deutsche Bank, Europabank, Fintro, ING Belgium, KBC Bank and vdk bank. Fourteen names, all Belgian, not one neobank.

The service is still heavily used between local players. Febelfin published the figures for the past year on 7 January 2026: 111,745 requests in 2025, against 134,343 in 2024. Of those, 38,118 customers, or 34 %, asked for both the closure of the old current account and the transfer of payments; 16 % moved payments only; 10 % had the old account closed without transferring anything, with the balance moved over. The savings side accounted for 45,178 closures over the same year. The drop against 2024 is mostly explained by the bank mergers of that year, which had pushed part of the customer base to move.

In March I filled in the form to move an account from one Belgian bank to another, out of professional curiosity as much as irritation at the fees. Eleven days later everything was in place, including the insurer collecting the home policy premium. I had written to nobody.

Direct debits, standing orders, salary: the exact scope

The regulations do not talk about "payments" in general. They define a transferable Payment Order, and that definition is narrower than people assume.

Inside the scope, and only these:

• An active direct debit, meaning one executed at least once in the thirteen months before the request.
• A standing order, rent or a monthly transfer to a savings account.
• A memo dated transfer, scheduled for a future due date.
• A recurring incoming transfer, recognised either by a communication starting with /A/, /B/ or /C/, or by at least six transfers from the same payer over thirteen months.
• The positive balance of the old account, after interest and fees are settled.
• The payment instruments linked to the account, debit, credit and prepaid cards included, cancelled on the switch date.

One line stays outside, and many people discover it too late: the account number registered with the FPS Finance, the Belgian federal tax administration. Wikifin, the financial education site run by the Belgian financial regulator FSMA, states it plainly on its page updated on 17 February 2025: the service does not handle it, and you change it yourself on MyMinfin, in the payments section. A tax refund sent to a closed account goes back to the Treasury and restarts a procedure.

The oversight is not theoretical. Someone I know moved her salary to N26 in 2024 without touching anything else. Her health insurance fund kept reimbursing care into the old Belgian account for seven months, an account she had left open and stopped looking at.

How long does switching banks take in Belgium?

Between two Belgian banks, the mechanism is timestamped from start to finish. The table below gathers the deadlines set out in the regulations, which the sector never presents together.

Recorded on 18 September 2026, from the interbank mobility service regulations published by Febelfin and from the Wikifin (FSMA) page on switching banks.

Two points deserve highlighting. The old bank is not allowed to block your payment instruments before the switch date, which removes the few day gap many people fear. And should a dispute arise, Ombudsfin, the Belgian financial ombudsman, is named in the regulations themselves as the route of recourse, with Belgian courts alone competent.

Moving to a neobank, none of those clocks runs. There is no form, no binding deadline, and no duty of cooperation between the two institutions.

So how do you move to a neobank?

By hand, line by line, in an order that avoids rejections. I went through my own Belgian account in August 2026 to measure the real workload: eleven active direct debits, three standing orders, two recurring incoming transfers, one tax account number. Seventeen lines. Count an evening to identify them, then a full billing cycle to check each one went through.

One detail governs all the rest. A SEPA direct debit is not "transferred": the mandate is signed between you and the creditor, not between the two banks. The creditor therefore has to register your new IBAN in its systems, and some do it by letter, some by online form, and some refuse a non Belgian IBAN outright, which runs against the European regulation on euro credit transfers and direct debits yet is still common practice. We cover that refusal and the available remedies in our article on holding a foreign IBAN in Belgium.

Keep the old account open through the transition. Three months is a sensible minimum, long enough for a forgotten annual charge to show up. Closing the account comes afterwards, and it is requested in writing.

Does Revolut's Belgian IBAN change anything?

Yes on one precise point, and no on the rest.

Since May 2025 Revolut has been issuing IBANs starting with BE to accounts opened in Belgium, through its Belgian branch. The prefix removes the leading cause of administrative rejection, the form that only accepts sixteen characters or the system that refuses a foreign IBAN. Test-Achats and the Belgian press covered the announcement widely in April 2025.

The prefix does not move the licence, though. Revolut operates in Belgium through a branch, which makes the regulations less clear cut than they look on paper, but the institution appears on none of the published lists of participants in the service today, and the brand's help pages nowhere offer an interbank mobility form. If your own situation is unclear, ask customer service before starting anything. Licensing and deposit protection are covered in our article on banking licences and electronic money institutions.

Bancontact, mortgages and rental guarantees: the three walls left standing

The main account debate is not settled on fees.

Bancontact first. None of the large neobanks active in Belgium supports the domestic Belgian card scheme, which is still used heavily by shops, parking meters and terminals. Your card runs as Maestro or Visa Debit instead, which works most of the time, except precisely where the terminal only takes the local scheme. The detail sits in our article on neobanks and Bancontact.

Mortgages next. No neobank lends for a property purchase in Belgium, and the Belgian lender you approach will look at where your income is paid.

Rental guarantees last. The individualised blocked account required by the regional housing rules cannot be opened at a neobank.

In short

Switching banks in Belgium has become simple, free and quick, on one condition: staying between institutions located in the country. Ten banking business days at the earliest, one month at the latest, your creditors and your employer notified without you writing a single letter. Moving to a neobank, that comfort disappears at once. The regulations do not recognise it as a party, direct debits are rebuilt mandate by mandate, and the FPS Finance is waiting for your new account number on MyMinfin. The setup that holds is therefore a double one: a Belgian bank kept for credit, the rental guarantee and Bancontact, and a neobank for daily life and travel. To compare offers line by line before you move, our comparison tool puts them side by side, and our article on opening an account covers the onboarding itself.

This article provides general information and constitutes neither legal advice nor investment advice.

Sources: regulations of the interbank mobility service, Febelfin; Febelfin press release of 7 January 2026 on the 2025 figures for the bank switching service; Febelfin Bankswitching page, list of participating banks; Wikifin (FSMA), "How to switch banks?", updated 17 February 2025; FPS Finance, MyMinfin; Book VII of the Belgian Code of Economic Law, payment services title; Directive 2014/92/EU on fee comparability, payment account switching and access to a basic account; Ombudsfin; La Libre and Test-Achats, April 2025, on Revolut's Belgian IBANs; Revolut, N26, bunq and Wise terms consulted on 18 September 2026.