Banks That Operate in Both the US and UK (2026)

The question sounds like it should have an easy answer. You are moving between London and New York, or you already have money on both sides, and you want one of the banks that operate in both the US and UK to cover you in both places.

Five banks in the US and UK genuinely operate on both sides: HSBC, Chase, Citi, Barclays and Santander. Only one of them will link your accounts, and it comes with conditions most people do not meet.

The rest run two entirely separate businesses that happen to share a logo. A Chase account in London cannot see a Chase account in Chicago, and Chase UK says in its own help pages that it cannot send or receive money internationally at all.

This guide goes through each of the banks in the US and UK with the actual products, fees and eligibility rules, then sets out what people who move between the two countries actually end up using.

Which Banks Operate in Both the US and the UK?

Five: HSBC, Chase, Citi, Barclays and Santander. Of the banks in the US and UK, HSBC is the only one that will open an account for you in the other country and link the two. The other four run separate legal entities with separate products, separate regulators and no connection between your accounts, so the shared brand buys you almost nothing in practice.

The Five Names, and What Each One Actually Is

It is worth being precise about what each of the banks in the US and UK actually is on each side, because the marketing language of a global bank hides a lot. Operating in a country can mean a full retail branch network, or it can mean one office serving corporate clients and a website that takes savings deposits.

Read that table as a warning rather than a shortlist. Four of the five rows end in no, and the one that does not comes with an eligibility rule that excludes anybody who is not already an HSBC customer.

Why a Shared Brand Is Not a Shared Account

Banks are licensed country by country. A bank operating in Britain needs authorisation from the Prudential Regulation Authority, and one taking deposits in America needs a US charter and FDIC insurance. Those are separate legal entities with separate balance sheets, separate capital and separate regulators, even when they sit under one holding company.

The practical consequences follow from that. Your deposits are protected by a different scheme on each side, the FSCS in Britain and the FDIC in America, and neither covers the other. You need to identify yourself again to the second entity, because the first one's checks do not transfer. And money moving between the two is an international payment, priced like one, even when both accounts carry the same name on the card.

Our guide to FSCS and FDIC protection sets out how the two schemes differ and why holding accounts in both countries gives you two separate limits rather than one shared one.

HSBC: The Only Genuine Bridge, and Its Conditions

HSBC will let you apply for an account in the USA from Britain before you move, and will link your accounts so you can see and move money between them. The condition is the catch: you must already hold an HSBC UK current account, be 18 or over, and currently live in the UK. If you do not already bank with HSBC, the door is shut until you do.

Opening a US Account Before You Move

If you want to open a US bank account from the UK, this is the only mainstream route that works before you get on the plane. HSBC's overseas account opening service covers more than 20 destinations including the USA, China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, the UAE and HSBC Expat. You apply online while still in Britain, then book a phone appointment with an international banking case manager who finishes the application. Being able to arrive in a country with a working local account already open is genuinely valuable, and no other bank on this list offers it to ordinary customers.

The restriction is worth restating because it is easy to skim past. This is not a route to a US bank account from the UK that is open to anyone. It is open to existing HSBC UK current account holders, which means the sequence for most people is open an HSBC UK account first, wait, then apply for the American one.

Global Transfers, and What Free Actually Means

Once you hold accounts in two HSBC markets, Global Transfers moves money between them with no HSBC fee and no intermediary bank fee, up to 200,000 US dollars or the equivalent per day. HSBC to HSBC payments are also free through the ordinary international payment route, against 5 pounds for a payment to anyone else.

That is a real feature, and it is also where the story usually stops on other people's pages. It should not, because a currency conversion is happening inside that free transfer, and the conversion is where the money goes.

The 2.2 Percent That Is Not in the Fee Table

HSBC states on its own international money transfer page that it applies the HSBC Exchange Rate, which includes a currency conversion charge. It publishes the tiers, which is more than most banks do: 2.2 percent on amounts up to 50,000 pounds, falling in steps to 0.4 percent on amounts between 500,001 pounds and 1 million pounds.

Put a normal number through it. Moving 5,000 pounds into dollars costs nothing in transfer fees between two HSBC accounts, and about 110 pounds in conversion charge. A specialist converting at the mid-market exchange rate charges roughly 19 pounds on the same amount. The free transfer is 91 pounds more expensive than the paid one.

Scale that up and the shape of the problem is obvious. Someone moving 3,000 pounds a month to cover a US mortgage pays around 792 pounds a year in conversion charge on HSBC's own published tier. Our guide to HSBC international transfers works through the rest of the pricing in detail.

Chase: A Famous American Name That Cannot Cross the Atlantic

Chase UK and Chase in America are different companies, and a Chase UK account cannot send or receive a single international payment. Chase UK is GBP only, has no branches, accepts no cheques, and states on its own support page that accounts cannot be used to send or receive money internationally yet. As a bridge between the two countries it does nothing at all.

Two Companies, One Logo

Chase is the best known of the American banks in the UK, and the structure behind it explains everything. Chase in the UK is a trading name of J.P. Morgan Europe Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales, authorised by the PRA and regulated by the FCA and the PRA. Chase in America is JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Deposits in the UK entity are covered by the FSCS, deposits in the American one by the FDIC.

Chase UK is blunter about this than most banks would be. Its moving abroad page says that if you move abroad it will not be able to keep you as a customer, because its bank only operates in the UK, and advises you to withdraw your money and close your accounts before you go. That is about as clear an answer as the question gets.

The Chase UK Savings Account, Rate and Rules

The Chase savings account in the UK pays 2.25% AER variable, quoted as 2.23% gross, and it is instant access with no notice period. New current account customers can add a boost of 2.25% AER for 12 months, taking the headline rate to 4.5% AER variable, 4.41% gross. The boost has to be claimed within the first 31 days of joining and is limited to one boosted saver per customer.

A Chase savings account in the UK holds up to 3 million pounds and pays interest monthly, which is the highest cap on any Chase UK savings product, which is unusually generous on the cap and ordinary on everything else. The rate is variable and the offer can be withdrawn at any time, so treat the boosted headline as a 12 month promotion rather than a permanent feature. Chase UK savings is a competent domestic product, and it is strictly domestic: it holds pounds, and only pounds.

Chase UK Cheque Deposit, and Why There Is None

There is no Chase UK cheque deposit facility of any kind. No app deposit, no postal deposit, no branch to walk into. If somebody pays you by cheque, a Chase UK account cannot accept it, and that is a genuine gap rather than a quirk, because solicitors, insurers and HMRC still issue cheques.

Most of the high street does take cheques by app. Starling accepts up to 1,000 pounds a cheque, HSBC up to 2,000 pounds a day, Barclays and Santander up to 5,000 pounds, NatWest and RBS up to 1,500 pounds a day, and Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland up to 10,000 pounds. If cheques arrive in your life at all, Chase cannot be your only UK account.

What the Chase Card Does Do Abroad

Credit where it is due: Chase charges no fee for using its card abroad, and applies the Mastercard rate on purchases in local currency. It also does not charge for withdrawals at Chase ATMs in the United States, which is the one place the shared brand genuinely pays off, since a Chase UK debit card at a Chase US machine avoids the operator fee.

The limits are modest. You can withdraw 500 pounds a day from cash machines and 1,500 pounds a month from your Chase current account while travelling abroad, and you earn no cashback on purchases outside the UK or in any currency other than sterling. Useful on a holiday, not a substitute for a local account if you are actually moving.

Citi: A UK Presence, Above 25 Million Dollars

Citi still operates in the UK, but not for ordinary customers. It announced on 21 September 2022 that it would wind down UK retail banking and keep only clients needing comprehensive wealth advice, closing the rest mostly during 2023. What remains is Citi Private Bank, whose published minimum in Europe is 25 million US dollars of net worth.

What Happened to Citibank's UK Current Accounts

Citi's own press release describes the decision as focusing its UK personal banking and wealth management business on select wealth clients. Customers who were not transitioning to the private bank were supported as they moved to a provider of their choice, with closures handled under the account terms and regulatory requirements. In plain terms, the ordinary accounts were closed.

That matters for anyone searching for American banks in the UK, because Citibank was for years the obvious answer. It is not any more. If you are trying to open a UK account as a US citizen or a new arrival, the realistic routes are the ones in our guide to opening a UK bank account as a non-resident rather than an American brand.

Citi Private Bank in the UK, and the Actual Entry Requirement

Citi Private Bank publishes its minimums openly, which is rare. Clients in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America need a minimum total net worth of 25 million US dollars. North America and Asia Pacific sit at 10 million. The bank runs more than 60 offices in over 20 countries and serves over 1,500 family offices.

So the honest position on Citi Private Bank in the UK is that it exists, it is substantial, and the threshold puts it outside the question almost everyone is asking. If you are at that level, the cross-border problem is solved by a relationship manager. If you are not, Citi is not an option on either side of the Atlantic for day to day banking.

Barclays and Santander: Two Banks, Two Countries, No Bridge

Both are full retail banks in Britain and much smaller propositions in America, and neither links your accounts. Barclays in the US is an online savings and CD business with no branches, no checking account and no ATM card. Santander runs a separate US bank in the Northeast plus a digital brand, entirely disconnected from Santander UK.

Barclays in the US Is a Savings Shell

Barclays runs the mirror image of the American banks in the UK story, a British bank with a thin American presence. Barclays US offers an online savings account paying around 3.30% APY, a tiered savings product going up to about 3.50%, and CDs from six months to five years. It is FDIC insured to the standard 250,000 dollars per depositor per ownership category, and it is online only with no physical locations in America.

What it does not offer is the thing that would make it useful here. There is no checking account, the savings account comes with no ATM card, and getting money out means transferring to an external account or requesting a cheque in the post. It is a place to park dollars at a decent rate, not an account you can live on, and it has no connection to your Barclays UK account. For the UK side of the picture, our guide to Barclays international transfers covers what sending money from Britain actually costs.

Santander UK and Santander US Are Separate Banks

Santander UK and Santander Bank, N.A. in the United States are separate entities under the same Spanish parent, with separate products, separate apps and no shared view of your money. Santander also runs a digital brand in the US alongside its Northeast branch network, which adds a name without adding a bridge.

The pattern by now is familiar. Banks that operate in both the US and UK can own a business in each country without giving any customer an account that spans them, because the licensing, the regulation and the deposit protection all stop at the border. The cost of moving money between the two is set out in our guide to Santander international transfers.

What None of These Banks Solve

None of the five gives you a single balance you can hold in both currencies, and none converts at a rate you can check. Whichever pair of accounts you end up with, money crossing between them is converted by a bank at a rate that includes a margin, and that margin is almost always larger than every fee on the statement combined.

Getting Paid in the Other Currency

The commonest version of this problem is an American employer or client paying someone in Britain, or the reverse. Sent as an international wire into a local account, the money is converted on arrival at the receiving bank's rate, and correspondent banks can take a cut on the way through, which is why the amount that lands rarely matches the amount that was sent.

The alternative is to hold local account details in the sending country, so the payer makes a domestic payment that arrives whole and stays in its own currency until you choose to convert. Our guide to receiving money from abroad covers how that works in practice, and our guide to what a US form means by a UK routing number covers what to type when someone in America is paying you in Britain.

See What Crossing the Atlantic Actually Costs

The fee and the exchange rate are quoted separately, and only the fee looks like a price. Put a real amount and the currencies you actually use into the comparison below, and it will show what each route takes out before the money lands rather than what it advertises on the way in.

The Exchange Rate Margin, in Money

Take the HSBC tier, since it is published and therefore checkable. On 5,000 pounds converted to dollars, a 2.2 percent conversion charge is about 110 pounds. At the mid-market rate with a specialist, the same transfer costs roughly 19 pounds, and the fee is shown before you confirm. The gap on one transfer is about 91 pounds.

Most banks do not publish a percentage at all, which makes them harder to price and usually not cheaper. Our guide to international wire transfer fees sets out the full cost stack, and the ranking of the best UK banks for international transfers puts the high street side by side.

What People Moving Between the US and UK Actually Use

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A local account in each country for the things that require one, plus a multi-currency account holding both currencies for everything that crosses. That keeps salary, rent, tax and credit local, and keeps every conversion in one place at a rate you can check against Google before you confirm it.

What the Multi-Currency Account Gives You

Real local details on both sides, which is the part no bank on this page offers. A UK sort code and account number so a British employer or client pays you domestically, and a US routing number and account number so an American one does the same. The money arrives as a local payment, whole, in its own currency.

Conversion happens when you decide, at the mid-market rate, with the fee shown as a separate line. On 5,000 pounds to dollars that fee is around 19 pounds, against about 110 pounds on HSBC's published tier. The card spends whichever currency you hold, so there is no conversion at the till when you are in the country whose money you are carrying.

Where It Sits Against Your Bank Accounts

Alongside, not instead of. You still want a UK and US bank account each for payroll, direct debits, rent and anything credit related, because local institutions expect a local account and a currency account will not stand in for one. What changes is that the bank stops being the thing that converts your money.

If you are opening the UK side from scratch, our guide to what you need to open a UK bank account covers the paperwork, and the full assessment of the account itself is in our Wise review.

What a Multi-Currency Account Cannot Do

It cannot replace a bank, and it is worth being specific about where it stops. No overdraft, no mortgage, no credit building, no branch, no cash deposits, and no cheque handling. On protection it is safeguarded rather than covered by a deposit compensation scheme, which is a different thing from being insured.

No Credit, No Cash, No Cheques

A currency account does not lend, so it builds no credit history on either side of the Atlantic, which matters if you are trying to get a US credit card or a UK mortgage after a move. It takes no cash deposits, and like Chase UK it accepts no cheques, so if either of those is part of your life you need a bank that handles them.

It is also not the place for a large balance sitting still. Money there is safeguarded, meaning held separately from the firm's own funds in cash at major banks and in government bonds, but it does not carry FSCS deposit cover or FDIC insurance by default. Our guide on how safe each way of moving money really is covers what that distinction means in practice.

Where a Bank Still Wins

For savings you want covered by a compensation scheme, for borrowing, for a branch when something goes wrong with a large payment, and for the ordinary business of proving to a landlord or a lender that you are a normal customer of a normal bank. If you want dollars specifically and want them inside FSCS protection, a USD account at a UK bank does that, at the cost of a worse rate when you convert.

The Bottom Line

Of the banks in the US and UK, HSBC is the only one that gives you a genuine bridge, and only if you are already an HSBC UK customer. Everyone else is holding two separate accounts under one brand, paying a bank's exchange rate to move money between them, and getting nothing from the shared logo except familiarity.

What to Do, in Order

Open a local account in whichever country you are arriving in, because a UK and US bank account each is what payroll, rent and tax all expect. If you already bank with HSBC UK and are moving to the States, use the overseas account opening service before you leave, because arriving with an account already open removes a genuine headache.

Then handle the crossing separately from the banking. Hold both currencies in one account with local details on each side, convert at the mid-market rate when you choose to, and leave your banks doing the things banks are actually good at.

The Number Worth Remembering

2.2 percent. That is HSBC's own published conversion charge on amounts up to 50,000 pounds, and HSBC is the transparent one here, because most banks publish no percentage at all. On 3,000 pounds a month it is roughly 792 pounds a year, quietly, on transfers that are advertised as free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Every fee, rate and eligibility rule in this guide comes from the bank that published it. Checked in September 2026.

• HSBC UK, opening an overseas account before you move
• HSBC UK, international money transfer fees and exchange rate charges
• HSBC Group, HSBC exits US mass market retail banking
• Chase UK, international payments
• Chase UK, moving abroad
• Chase UK, travelling with Chase
• Chase UK, Chase Saver with boosted rate
• Citi, proposal to focus UK personal banking on select wealth clients
• Citi Private Bank, private banking FAQs and minimum net worth
• Forbes Advisor, Barclays US savings review
• Finder UK, banks that allow you to pay cheques in online