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Banking around the world · UK & wider Europe

UK & wider Europe

London's rulebook, Swiss and Norwegian rails, Türkiye's scale and Ukraine's resilience

This edition covers the UK and four European markets outside the EU: Switzerland, Norway, Türkiye and Ukraine, with notes on Iceland, Liechtenstein, the Crown Dependencies, Gibraltar, the microstates and the Western Balkans. Global financial centres, a near-cashless Nordic market, instant payments at national scale and banks working through war. EU member states are in the Europe edition.

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At a glance

£120,000UK deposit protection per person per authorised bank (FSCS, from 1 December 2025)
5.55 billionFaster Payments made in the UK in 2025, up 9% on 2024 (Pay.UK, February 2026)
5.4 billionFAST instant payments in Türkiye in 2025 (CBRT Annual Report 2025)
About 3%Share of shop payments made in cash in Norway (Norges Bank survey, spring 2026)
UK & wider Europe

The markets

GB

United Kingdom

Pound sterling (GBP), floating · London · Edinburgh · Manchester · Leeds

Central bank
Bank of England: monetary policy, financial stability and RTGS/CHAPS settlement; home of the PRA
Supervisors
PRA (prudential) and FCA (conduct, payments, e-money); a 2026 Bill would fold the Payment Systems Regulator into the FCA
Payment rails
Faster Payments (24/7 since 2008), Bacs and CHAPS; Confirmation of Payee since 2020
Open finance
Since 2018 under a CMA order; over one billion payments by July 2026 (OBL); FCA rules to follow under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
Deposit protection
FSCS: £120,000 per person per authorised bank since 1 December 2025; temporary high balances up to £1.4 million
Digital banks
No separate digital licence; new banks often start in a mobilisation phase. Monzo, Starling, Zopa; Revolut fully licensed since March 2026
Islamic finance
About 0.1% of bank assets (IFSB, Q3 2024): Al Rayan Bank, Gatehouse Bank, BLME and QIB UK; sovereign sukuk in 2014 and 2021
CH

Switzerland

Swiss franc (CHF), also used in Liechtenstein · Zurich · Geneva · Basel · Lugano

Central bank
Swiss National Bank (SNB): monetary policy; oversees the SIC interbank payment system, operated by SIX
Supervisors
FINMA for banks, insurers, securities firms and FinTech licensees; post-Credit Suisse too-big-to-fail reforms are before Parliament
Payment rails
SIC settles in central bank money; instant payments since August 2024, which all banks must receive by end-2026; TWINT, QR-bill
Open finance
Market-led, with no legal duty to share data (Federal Council, December 2025); over 40 banks in the multibanking initiative
Deposit protection
esisuisse: up to CHF 100,000 per customer per bank, paid out within seven working days
Digital banks
Banking licence, or FINMA FinTech licence (2019): deposits up to CHF 100 million, not invested, no interest; e.g. Yapeal
Islamic finance
No Islamic bank; Shariah-compliant products sit mainly in private banking and asset management
NO

Norway

Norwegian krone (NOK), floating · Oslo · Bergen · Stavanger

Central bank
Norges Bank: monetary policy, settlement and cash; also manages the Government Pension Fund Global
Supervisors
Finanstilsynet for banks, finance and payment firms, insurers and markets; EU rules apply through the EEA Agreement
Payment rails
NICS Real instant payments (about 210 million in 2025), mostly via Vipps; BankAxept cards; TIPS link due H1 2028
Open finance
PSD2 applies through the EEA: banks open APIs to licensed third parties; bank-issued BankID is used for login and signing
Deposit protection
Banks' Guarantee Fund: NOK 2 million per depositor per bank; life-event deposits covered above that for 12 months
Digital banks
No special licence: online lenders such as Instabank hold standard licences; Vipps MobilePay is owned by banks
Islamic finance
No Islamic bank or Islamic window (2026)
TR

Türkiye

Turkish lira (TRY), floating · Istanbul (Istanbul Financial Center) · Ankara

Central bank
Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT): monetary policy, FAST and EFT, and licensing of payment and e-money firms
Supervisors
BRSA (BDDK) for all banks, leasing and factoring; Capital Markets Board for markets and crypto firms; TMSF for deposit insurance
Payment rails
FAST (24/7 since 2021; 5.4 billion payments in 2025), EFT for large values, and TR QR at POS terminals and ATMs
Open finance
Under Law 6493 through the GEÇİT gateway: 39 account providers certified by end-2025 (CBRT)
Deposit protection
TMSF: TRY 1.2 million per depositor per bank from 2026, covering deposits and participation funds
Digital banks
Digital-bank licence since January 2022: TRY 1 billion capital, no branches, lending mainly to consumers and SMEs
Islamic finance
Participation banks hold 8.2% of bank assets (IFSB, Q3 2024): Kuveyt Türk, Albaraka Türk, Türkiye Finans and three state-owned banks
UA

Ukraine

Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH), managed flexibility since October 2023 · Kyiv · Lviv · Dnipro

Central bank
National Bank of Ukraine (NBU): monetary policy, the SEP payment system, and supervision of banks and non-banks
Supervisors
NBU for banks, insurers and payment firms; NSSMC for capital markets; State Financial Monitoring Service as FIU
Payment rails
SEP 4.1 instant credit transfers since December 2024, on ISO 20022 and SEPA rules
Open finance
Provided for by the Law on Payment Services (in force 2022); NBU Regulation on Open Banking adopted July 2025
Deposit protection
Deposit Guarantee Fund: individuals fully covered during martial law and three months after; then at least UAH 600,000
Digital banks
No separate digital licence: monobank, the best-known app-only bank, runs on Universal Bank's licence
Islamic finance
No Islamic bank or Islamic window (2026)

How banking is organised here

There is no banking union here: each market has its own central bank and supervisor. The UK splits prudential and conduct supervision, Switzerland and Norway each have one integrated supervisor, and Türkiye separates bank supervision from payment licensing. Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway take EU financial law through the EEA.

  • UK twin peaks: the PRA, part of the Bank of England, for safety and soundness, the FCA for conduct; HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest ring-fence core retail banking.
  • Switzerland: UBS has been the only Swiss global systemically important bank since taking over Credit Suisse in 2023, beside cantonal banks, Raiffeisen and private banks.
  • Norway: DNB holds 26% of the personal and 32% of the corporate market; 72 savings banks and foreign branches compete with it (Ministry of Finance, 2026).
  • Türkiye and Ukraine: state-owned banks lead (Ziraat, Halkbank and VakıfBank; PrivatBank and Oschadbank); Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022.
  • Around them: Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar have their own regulators; Monaco, San Marino, Andorra and the Vatican use the euro by agreement with the EU; Russia and Belarus face broad sanctions.

Payments: instant at national scale

Instant payments are routine here: Faster Payments in the UK since 2008, FAST in Türkiye since 2021, and central-bank instant transfers in Switzerland and Ukraine since 2024. Norway, where cash is about 3% of shop payments, will settle in the ECB's TIPS from 2028.

  • UK: 5.55 billion Faster Payments worth £4.84 trillion in 2025, beside 6.86 billion Bacs payments (Pay.UK).
  • UK open banking passed one billion payments in July 2026, with 40 million in June 2026 alone (OBL).
  • Switzerland: institutions handling 95% of payments have received instant payments since August 2024; TWINT has 6 million+ users and made 901 million transactions in 2025.
  • Norway: about 210 million instant payments in 2025, mostly via Vipps; yet since October 2024 the law has required shops to offer cash payment (Norges Bank).
  • Türkiye: FAST peaked at 28.7 million payments in one day (2025); the KOLAS alias service has 26 million users and TR QR works at about 90% of POS terminals (CBRT).

Fintech, digital banks and digital assets

Only Türkiye has a dedicated digital-bank licence (2022), with rules for banking-as-a-service. UK challengers hold the same licences as incumbents, Switzerland adds a FinTech licence for deposit-takers that do not lend, and Ukraine's best-known app bank runs on a standard licence.

  • UK: Revolut, licensed with restrictions in July 2024, left mobilisation and became a full UK bank in March 2026.
  • Switzerland: deposits under the FinTech licence (up to CHF 100 million) may not be invested or earn interest, and deposit protection does not cover them.
  • Türkiye: licensed service banks may sell through fintech platforms by API; there were 24 payment and 62 e-money institutions at end-2025 (CBRT).
  • Ukraine: NBU rules (July 2025) cover open banking APIs and the authorisation of non-bank payment providers; the state app Diia supplies digital documents used in remote onboarding.

Rules a bank must map here

Each market keeps its own rulebook. Final Basel III has applied in Switzerland since January 2025 and starts in the UK on 1 January 2027. Türkiye left the FATF's increased-monitoring list in June 2024; Monaco remains on it, and Bosnia and Herzegovina was added in June 2026.

  • UK: PRA Rulebook and Basel 3.1 (PS1/26), SM&CR, ring-fencing, operational resilience, the Consumer Duty (2023) and UK GDPR; a 2026 Bill would fold the PSR into the FCA and lighten SM&CR.
  • Switzerland: the Banking Act and Capital Adequacy Ordinance, FINMA circulars on operational risks and resilience, the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the revised Data Protection Act (2023).
  • Norway: EEA versions of EU capital, resolution, PSD2 and GDPR rules, the Financial Institutions Act and the 2018 Anti-Money Laundering Act.
  • Türkiye: Banking Law 5411, Law 6493 on payments and e-money, BRSA digital-bank rules (2022), the data protection law KVKK, and MASAK as financial intelligence unit.
  • Ukraine: banking and payment services laws, NBU prudential and open banking rules, and an AML regime evaluated by MONEYVAL.

What operations teams wrestle with

Scams in which customers authorise the payment themselves drive much of the fraud work, and in the UK the cost is shared by law. Teams must also prove resilience, screen against wide sanctions and, in Ukraine, keep systems running through blackouts.

  • UK APP-scam reimbursement since 7 October 2024: up to £85,000 per claim, with the cost split 50:50 between sending and receiving firms.
  • Sanctions: UK, Swiss and Norwegian measures against Russia and Belarus require screening of customers, payments, trade finance and ownership chains.
  • Resilience: UK firms had to stay within impact tolerances for important business services by March 2025; FINMA expects critical functions to be mapped and tested.
  • Ukraine: under the NBU's Power Banking initiative, branches stay open through power cuts with generators and satellite links.
  • Türkiye: inflation and currency swings mean frequent repricing, and FAST peaks test fraud monitoring and system capacity.

How SMEs get financed

Banks remain the main lenders to small firms, backed by public guarantees: the British Business Bank, Swiss guarantee cooperatives, Türkiye's Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF) and subsidised loans in Ukraine.

  • UK: the Growth Guarantee Scheme (since July 2024) gives lenders a 70% government guarantee while the borrower stays fully liable; funding runs to March 2030.
  • Switzerland: four guarantee cooperatives back bank loans of up to CHF 1 million; the Confederation covers up to 65% of losses (SECO).
  • Norway: foreign banks provide nearly a third of corporate lending, and the SpareBank 1 and Eika alliances serve local firms.
  • Türkiye: KGF guarantees loans to firms short of collateral, including Treasury-backed packages for exports, investment and green transformation.
  • Ukraine: the state Affordable Loans 5-7-9% programme (since 2020) subsidises interest on small-business loans; international guarantees support wartime lending.
Islamic finance: an eye opener

Islamic finance: from Istanbul to London

Türkiye has the region's largest Islamic banking sector: participation banks hold about 8% of banking assets, and the Treasury issues lease certificates (sukuk). The UK has Western Europe's most developed Islamic market, though at about 0.1% of assets it stays small. Elsewhere activity is limited.

  • Islamic share of banking assets (IFSB, Q3 2024): Türkiye 8.2%, growing 9.9% a year over five years; UK 0.1%.
  • Türkiye: Kuveyt Türk, Albaraka Türk and Türkiye Finans sit beside state-owned Ziraat Katılım, Vakıf Katılım and Emlak Katılım; the TMSF insures participation funds.
  • UK: sovereign sukuk of £200 million (2014) and £500 million (2021, matured July 2026), with a third under discussion; since 2021 the Bank of England's Alternative Liquidity Facility has offered sukuk-backed, non-interest liquidity.
  • Elsewhere: Bosna Bank International in Sarajevo has worked on Islamic principles since 2000, and Russia began a partnership-finance experiment in 2023; Switzerland offers Shariah-compliant wealth management.

What it offers everyone

Customers

Families and firms who avoid interest can finance a home, car or equipment through a regulated bank, at a price fixed up front and tied to a real asset.

Banks and financiers

Participation banks reach customers that conventional products miss, tap sukuk markets and Gulf investors, and stay close to real trade.

Savers and investors

Profit-sharing accounts and sukuk tie returns to real assets, with ethical screening; Turkish participation funds are insured like deposits.

The economy

Credit follows real trade and assets, sukuk can fund housing and infrastructure, and savings kept outside banks join the financial system.

A concrete opening: Türkiye shows Islamic banking at scale; the UK shows how tax neutrality and a central-bank facility help small Islamic banks compete. Digital, asset-backed home and SME finance could carry both lessons further.

Working with banking teams here

Working with banking teams across the region

Common norms; individuals differ. Expect punctual, well-prepared, evidence-led meetings in London, Zurich and Oslo, and warmer, relationship-first conversations in Istanbul. English is the working language in most international banks.

Common norms; individuals differ.

  • UK: understated and polite; 'interesting' can signal doubt. Circulate a paper with evidence and regulatory references before the meeting.
  • Switzerland: precision and consensus; teams may work in German, French or Italian, and decisions often pass through several committees.
  • Norway: flat hierarchies and open debate; managers seek team agreement, and little is decided in the July holiday weeks.
  • Türkiye: hospitality and personal trust matter; expect tea, time to build the relationship and senior sign-off. Material in Turkish shows respect.
  • Ukraine: teams are often fast, direct and digital; air-raid alerts or power cuts may interrupt sessions, so agree fallback times.
Learning from each other

What the GCC can learn from UK & wider Europe

  • From the UK: shared scam liability between sending and receiving banks, payee name checks and outcome-based rules such as the Consumer Duty.
  • From Türkiye: billions of instant payments a year, beside a dual conventional and participation banking system.
  • From Norway and Ukraine: digital banking that keeps working under stress, and a protected right to pay cash.

What UK & wider Europe can learn from the GCC

  • Islamic finance in depth: Shariah governance, AAOIFI standards and active sukuk markets to help small Islamic banks grow.
  • National digital identity and fast remote onboarding, as with Nafath in Saudi Arabia and UAE Pass.
  • Sandbox-to-licence paths that took digital banks from rules to launch within a few years.
The other regions
GCCIslamic finance at scale, national instant rails and regulators that move fastMENAEgypt's scale, Jordan's shared rails and Morocco's bridge to AfricaEuropeWhere global banking rules are written: a banking union, a single rulebook and instant euro payments by lawNorth AmericaDeep markets, many banks and payment rails modernising across three economiesLatin America & CaribbeanBrazil's Pix, Colombia's Bre-B and open finance set by ruleSub-Saharan AfricaSouth Africa's instant rails, Kenya's mobile money, West Africa's shared central bankSouth AsiaIndia's public rails, Pakistan's Islamic shift and Bangladesh's mobile moneyCentral Asia & CaucasusKaspi's super app, Astana's financial centre and new Islamic windowsEast & Southeast AsiaScale, speed and public rails: five markets setting the pace of digital bankingAustralia & NZTrans-Tasman banking: real-time rails, data rights and firm conduct rulesCompare the regionsAll eleven regions in one table

Further reading

Country register: central banks, supervisors, AML, data protection and deposit insurance, country by country →

Facts checked in October 2026. Banking rules change often, so check the official source before you rely on a detail. Bank and company names show the market; they do not imply any relationship with MTWAFIQ.