THE BRITISH Banking Association has launched an online service listing the UK banks that allow overseas residents to hold an account.

There is no legal restriction stopping banks accepting customers with foreign addresses, but the overwhelming majority of Britain’s 336 banks are unwilling to offer domestic banking services for residents who do not have an address in the UK because of concerns over fraud prevention and extra administrative costs.

Many of the problems that non-UK residents have are because of complex money-laundering regulations that were introduced in 1993.

Updates in 2003 and 2007 made banks look again at the non-resident business as they introduced more checks.

The BBA has recognised that there is a real problem for people wanting to invest in the UK.

At the moment, its account-finder service which can be found here only lists three banks accepting international customers: Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds TSB.