Nomo

Pricing

• •The 5 GBP account fee is waived in five cases: at least 1,000 GBP on the account (balances in the other currencies count), an investment account open, being a student with a recognised grant, an active instant access or fixed term deposit, or property finance in place or under application.
• •The 10 GBP card issuance fee is charged only if the current account balance is below 3,000 GBP. Above that threshold the first card is free.
• •Sending by SWIFT with the OUR option, where you cover all the charges, costs 17 to 31 GBP depending on the destination country: 17 GBP for a first group that includes Canada, Greece, Jersey, Kuwait, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, 19 GBP for a second group, 31 GBP for the widest group covering much of the European Union, and 22 GBP for any country not listed. Equivalent amounts apply in the other five currencies. The single flat price shown elsewhere is the SHA option.
• •The app converts instantly between the six account currencies (GBP, USD, EUR, KWD, SAR and AED). The exchange rate is set by Currency Cloud, and Nomo may apply a margin on top of it.
• •Fixed term deposits pay an expected profit rate that varies by currency, amount and term over 3, 6 or 12 months: GBP from 3.65% to 4.30%, USD from 3.30% to 3.70%, EUR from 1.60% to 2.15%. The higher band of each currency starts above 25,000 GBP, or above 30,000 for USD and EUR.

Limits

• •Cash withdrawals are capped at 5 per day, and the limits of the ATM operator apply on top of Nomo's own.
• •Card spending limits exist but are not published: you can see them in the Card tab of the app, and they are currently fixed.
• •No transfer limit is published for local, SEPA or SWIFT payments. The current account terms state that internal controls, including limits, apply to some kinds of payment and that the bank cannot disclose what they are.
• •A fixed term deposit starts at 5,000 GBP or 10,000 USD or EUR. The Instant Access Saver is a separate product, with a minimum of 1,000 in each of the three currencies and its own rates.

Payments & transfers

• •The list of blocked countries is not Nomo's own: it is the list of its multi-currency provider CurrencyCloud, and it is subject to change. Nomo also uses other partner banks to move payments, and those may have their own prohibited country lists that are not shown anywhere, so a payment can still be rejected.
• •The product is a fiat multi-currency account: outgoing payments need the beneficiary's bank account IBAN, and the in-app conversion is fiat only, between the six supported currencies (GBP, USD, KWD, AED, EUR and SAR). There is no withdrawal to a wallet.
• •The only published restrictions on transfers are by country. Nothing published restricts payments by type of counterparty, so sending to or receiving from an exchange is not addressed either way.
• •Faster Payments, CHAPS and BACS transfers can only be processed in the GBP account. It is the only local rail Nomo declares, and no other currency has one.
• •The GBP account has its own sort code, different from the other currency accounts: 04-13-68 for incoming payments from UK banks, and 04-14-04 where a foreign bank asks for it.

Cards

• •The cards are not issued by Nomo: they come from Monavate Limited, a principal member of MasterCard International, acting on behalf of BLME.

Crypto

• •No crypto policy is published: nothing in Nomo's public material mentions crypto assets, exchanges or wallets, so there is neither a stated ban nor a stated opening.

Business activity

• •The Sharia rules bind your transactions, not only the bank's own investments: you must not use the account for a transaction prohibited by the Sharia'a Supervisory Board, and the published list names participation in haram industries such as alcohol, gambling, tobacco and pork. It is a ban on individual transactions rather than a refusal to onboard a sector, but it matters if your recurring income comes from one of those industries.

Opening an account

• •Accounts are available to customers aged 16 or over, and joint accounts are not offered.
• •living in KW, SA, AEProof of address is done with the local identity document, front and back: the Civil ID card for Kuwait residents, the National ID card for Saudi Arabia residents, and the Emirates ID card in the UAE.
• •living in AEUAE residents must have a monthly income of 18,750 AED or more, or a minimum net worth of 270,000 AED, or be a student. Applications that do not meet the criteria are rejected.
• •living in KWKuwait residents must have a monthly income of 1,600 KWD or more, or a minimum net worth of 22,800 KWD, or be a student. Applications that do not meet the criteria are rejected.
• •living in SASaudi Arabia residents must have a monthly income of 19,375 SAR or more, or a minimum net worth of 280,000 SAR, or be a student. Applications that do not meet the criteria are rejected.
• •The account is for personal use only. The terms are explicit: "If we find out you're using your account for non-personal use, like running a business, we can close your account."
• •A citizen or resident of the United States of America can hold the bank account but not the investment account: opening the investment account requires declaring that you are not a citizen or resident of the United States of America.

Countries & residency

• •Crimea and the Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine are blocked as well, in both directions, alongside the countries on the list.
• •You can keep using the account if you move abroad, but some exceptions may apply, such as EU countries. Nomo asks you to contact its support team to check your own case.

Company ownership

• •Nomo is a trading name of Bank of London and The Middle East plc (BLME), a fully authorised UK bank, and the account runs on BLME's banking licence. BLME is a subsidiary of Boubyan Group, and Boubyan Bank is its parent bank.

Licence & regulation

• •Deposits are covered by the FSCS, but the published ceiling is inconsistent: the product pages state 120,000 GBP while the investment terms document states 85,000 GBP, and no source says which figure is current.
• •Nomo is an Islamic bank: the current account uses the principle of Qard, no interest is paid on your balance, and your money is not used for interest-based lending.

Rewards

• •The expected profit rate is not guaranteed for the life of the account. If it is reduced, Nomo tells you and you then have 30 calendar days to say whether you want the account closed.